Meta's AI Costs Leap As Its Ad Sales Gain

"Meta Platforms on Wednesday said quarterly digital advertising grew rapidly while the company's investments in artificial intelligence and the so-called metaverse weighed on profits.

The company's rising expenses have come as a result of the company's all-in approach toward capitalizing on the AI boom sweeping the tech industry. Meta increased its minimum spending guidance for 2024, and its capital expenditures surged about 33% after the company said in April that costs would rise by up to $10 billion for infrastructure investments to support its AI ambitions.

"Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year," said Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta released its latest large language model, Llama 3.1, last week, and it made Meta AI available in more languages and markets. Zuckerberg said the amount of computing resources required to train Llama 4 will likely be almost 10 times more than what Meta used to train Llama 3. Future models will grow beyond that, he said.

"At this point, I'd rather risk building capacity before it is needed rather than too late given the long lead times for spinning up new inference projects," Zuckerberg said.

Shares rose by about 5% in after-hours trading, suggesting that improved sales forecasts and profits outweighed concerns about spending increases for investors.

Meta's peers met with a different reaction. Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet saw their share prices dip as they reported rising AI costs.

Meta's shares have risen by almost 50% in the past 12 months, a rally fueled by breakthroughs in artificial-intelligence technology that have improved its ad-targeting capabilities. Those advancements in AI have helped Meta overcome challenges posed by privacy changes implemented by Apple in 2021 that erased $10 billion of revenue for the social-media company in 2022.

The company's sales increased to $39.1 billion, up 22% compared to a year prior. The revenue growth was down compared to the January-to-March period, when Meta reported annual revenue growth of more than 27%. Advertising made up 98% of Meta's second-quarter revenue.

Third-quarter revenue is expected to be between $38.5 billion and $41 billion, ahead of analyst expectations of $38.3 billion, according to FactSet data.

Operating losses in Meta's Reality Labs unit, which produces the Quest headset and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, are set to increase "meaningfully" in the remainder of 2024 as Meta continues to build out software and hardware. Zuckerberg has for years extolled the virtues of a metaverse, or a virtual space where he expects people to work and spend time in the future. The division had an operating loss of $4.5 billion for the period.

The company announced that it is raising its forecast for its minimum 2024 capital expenditures from $35 billion to at least $37 billion, but it maintained its maximum forecast for expenditures at $40 billion.

Overall, Meta posted a net profit of $13.5 billion for the second quarter. That was up about 73.1% compared with the net profit that the company posted for the same period in 2023." [1]

1. Meta's AI Costs Leap As Its Ad Sales Gain. Rodriguez, Salvador.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 01 Aug 2024: B.1.

Foolish Idea: Registration opens for Day X Prep and Drone Operator Courses

 

Due to the common market, our prices have been equalized with the prices of Western countries. We are not a cheap country anymore. We do not have and will not have good professionals. Therefore, we cannot compete in terms of quality. Bankruptcy. What are we doing? We are playing nuclear war with NATO involvement, hoping that everyone will die and we won't have to bother anymore. Idiots.

 

 

 

 "Registration for the preparation day "X" and drone operator courses starts from Thursday.

 

 

 

 You can register for the Day X preparation course, which is aimed at strengthening the public's civil resistance skills, on the website of the Department of Mobilization and Civil Resistance.

 

 

 

 The new system of preparation for civil resistance consists of three stages.

 

 

 

 One of them is the basic course, which takes place on the remote training platform "Mobilization School".

 

 

 

 The Ministry plans that about 33,000 citizens will take basic courses this year, and about 50,000 next year.

 

 

 

 The next phase is hybrid threat resilience training. According to the ministry, this course will be offered in 8 hours. more than 50 persons will participate in theoretical trainings that last at the same time. This part is intended to provide theoretical knowledge and strengthen the resilience of society.

 

 

 

 The last is a practical skills course module focused on self-survival and the skills necessary to help others in the event of war. The practical training will last about 8-9 hours and will be attended by up to 30 participants at a time.

 

 

 

 About 800 people are expected to take the hybrid threat resistance course this year, and by 2025 – 2,000 citizens, practical skills module this year – 400, next year – 1,000 citizens.

 

 

 

 The training is planned to start in September and will usually take place on Saturdays.

 

 

 

 Registration for drone operator courses will also open from Thursday, which will be open to anyone interested in gaining basic drone control skills.

 

 

 

 Drone operator courses at the Military Academy will start from September.

 

 

 

 Upon completion, graduates will receive an A1/A3 license and basic drone piloting skills."

 

Durnių išmislas: prasideda registracija į pasirengimo dienai „X“ ir dronų operatorių kursus

 

Dėl bendros rinkos susivienodino mūsų kainos su Vakarų valstybių kainomis. Jau nesame pigi šalis. Gerų kadrų neturime ir neturėsime. Todėl konkuruoti kokybe negalime. Bankrotas. Ką mes darome? Žaidžiame branduolinį karą su NATO dalyvavimu, tikėdamiesi, kad visi žus ir mums toliau vargti nereiks. Idiotai.

 

"Nuo ketvirtadienio prasideda registracija į pasirengimo dienai „X“ bei dronų operatorių kursus.

 

Į pasirengimo dienai „X“ kursą, skirtą visuomenės pilietinio pasipriešinimo įgūdžiams stiprinti, registruotis galima Mobilizacijos ir pilietinio pasipriešinimo departamento interneto svetainėje.

 

Nauja rengimo pilietiniam pasipriešinimui sistema, susideda iš trijų etapų.

 

Vienas jų – bazinis kursas, jis vyksta nuotolinėje mokymų platformoje „Mobilizacijos mokykla“.

 

Ministerija planuoja, kad šiemet bazinius kursus išklausys apie 33.000 piliečių, kitąmet – apie 50.000.

 

Kitas etapas – atsparumo hibridinėms grėsmėms mokymai. Pasak ministerijos, šis kursas bus pateikiamas per 8 val. trunkančius teorinius mokymus, juose dalyvaus per 50 asmenų vienu metu. Ši dalis skirta suteikti teorinių žinių, stiprinti visuomenės atsparumą.

 

Paskutinysis – praktinių įgūdžių kursų modulis, orientuotas į išgyvenimą pačiam ir pagalbos kitiems karo atveju būtinus įgūdžius. Praktiniai mokymai truks apie 8–9 val., juose dalyvaus iki 30 dalyvių vienu metu.

 

Atsparumo hibridinėms grėsmėms kursus šiemet turėtų išklausyti apie 800, 2025 m. – 2.000 piliečių, praktinių įgūdžių modulį šiais metais – 400, kitais metais – 1.000 piliečių.

 

Mokymai, planuojama, prasidės rugsėjį, jie dažniausiai vyks šeštadieniais.

 

Nuo ketvirtadienio taip pat prasideda registracija į dronų operatorių kursus, kuriuose dalyvauti galės visi norintys įgyti pradinius bepiločių orlaivių valdymo įgūdžius.

 

Dronų operatorių kursai Karo akademijoje prasidės nuo rugsėjo.

 

Juos baigę absolventai gaus A1/A3 licenciją ir pradinius bepiločių orlaivių valdymo įgūdžius."