Shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) soared by over 11% last night. The big jump came after the social media giant reported its latest earnings. But what’s so exciting about its results? For starters, Meta Platforms’ revenue soared by 22% year-on-year for 2025’s second quarter (2Q’25). That’s a strong performance, especially when you consider Meta’s size. To put it into numbers: revenue rose from US$39 billion a year ago to US$47.5 billion. That’s a US$8.5 billion revenue gain over the past year. Surprisingly, that’s not the most interesting story.

How Meta’s AI engine powers its business 

At its core, Meta’s ad business is not complicated. Allow me to explain. The social media network attracts people to its popular apps, namely Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. Without a doubt, the company does a fantastic job here. There are almost 3.5 billion daily users across the four apps today. But getting people to its site is just half the battle....