Meta 的 AI 雄心在 Metaverse 困境中重挫股票

由於第二季營收前景下調，加上人工智慧計劃的積極支出計劃，Meta (META) 股價在盤後交易中暴跌 15%。儘管第一季的收入超出了預期，但 Meta 預計其 Metaverse 部門 Reality Labs 的支出將會增加，並將持續虧損。該公司專注於人工智慧投資，包括開發 Llama 3 人工智慧模型，旨在支持長期成長，但引起了投資者的擔憂。

Meta's Ambitious AI Plans Drive Stock Plummet Amidst Metaverse Losses

Meta 雄心勃勃的人工智慧計畫導致股價在 Metaverse 虧損的情況下暴跌

In a significant market development, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has witnessed a colossal 15% drop in its stock value during after-hours trading. This dramatic decline follows the release of its first-quarter earnings report, which unveiled a disappointing revenue outlook for Q2 and unveiled aggressive investment plans in artificial intelligence (AI).

在一次重大的市場發展中，Facebook、Instagram 和 WhatsApp 的母公司 Meta Platforms 的股價在盤後交易中暴跌 15%。這一大幅下滑是在其第一季財報發布後出現的，該報告公佈了令人失望的第二季收入前景，並公佈了人工智慧 (AI) 領域積極的投資計劃。

Meta's Chief Financial Officer, Susan Li, reported during the April 24th earnings call that revenue guidance for the second quarter is anticipated to range between $36.5 billion and $39 billion. This projection falls short of the $38.3 billion estimate anticipated by Wall Street analysts.

Meta 財務長 Susan Li 在 4 月 24 日的財報電話會議上報告稱，第二季的營收指引預計在 365 億美元至 390 億美元之間。這項預測低於華爾街分析師預期的 383 億美元。

Furthermore, Li indicated that expenses are expected to increase significantly to a range of $96 billion to $99 billion, a rise from the previous estimate of $94 billion to $99 billion, primarily attributed to "higher infrastructure and legal costs."

此外，李表示，支出預計將大幅增加至 960 億美元至 990 億美元，高於先前估計的 940 億美元至 990 億美元，主要歸因於「基礎設施和法律成本增加」。

The company's full-year 2024 capital expenditures have also been revised upwards, with the upper limit now set at $40 billion, compared to the previous estimate of $37 billion. This move reflects Meta's "aggressive investment" strategy to support its ambitious AI research and product development initiatives.

該公司2024年全年資本支出也被上調，目前上限設定為400億美元，此前預計為370億美元。此舉體現了 Meta 的「積極投資」策略，以支持其雄心勃勃的人工智慧研究和產品開發計劃。

Despite these setbacks, Meta reported solid financial results for the first quarter, with revenues reaching $36.46 billion, marking a robust 27% year-over-year (YOY) increase. This surpassed Wall Street analysts' Zacks estimate of $36.28 billion by 0.48%. Additionally, earnings per share doubled YOY to $4.71, outperforming estimates of $4.32 per share.

儘管遇到這些挫折，Meta 報告第一季財務業績穩健，營收達到 364.6 億美元，年比 (YOY) 強勁成長 27%。這比華爾街分析師 Zacks 估計的 362.8 億美元高出 0.48%。此外，每股盈餘年增至 4.71 美元，超出每股 4.32 美元的預期。

However, the company's metaverse-building division, Reality Labs, continues to incur significant losses. In Q1, the division lost $3.85 billion, although this represents a slight improvement from the nearly $4 billion lost during the first quarter of 2023. Meta anticipates that these losses will continue to escalate YOY as it supports the division's product development efforts.

然而，該公司的虛擬宇宙建設部門 Reality Labs 繼續遭受重大損失。第一季度，該部門損失了 38.5 億美元，儘管這比 2023 年第一季近 40 億美元的損失略有改善。

CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized during the earnings call that "an increasing amount of our Reality Labs work is going toward serving our AI efforts." He anticipated a "multi-year investment cycle" before Meta could fully scale its AI businesses.

執行長馬克·祖克柏在財報電話會議上強調，“我們現實實驗室中越來越多的工作將服務於我們的人工智慧工作。”他預計 Meta 可以全面擴展其人工智慧業務之前需要一個「多年的投資週期」。

Zuckerberg further elaborated that "building the leading AI will also be a larger undertaking than the other experiences we've added to our apps. This is likely going to take several years."

祖克柏進一步闡述道，“與我們在應用程式中添加的其他體驗相比，建立領先的人工智慧也將是一項更大的任務。這可能需要幾年時間。”

In response to these announcements, Meta shares experienced a substantial decline of 15.4% after-hours on April 24th, reaching $417.22 after closing the day down 0.5% at $493.50. The stock briefly touched a low of $402.98 before recovering slightly.

受這些公告影響，Meta 股價在 4 月 24 日盤後大幅下跌 15.4%，收在 417.22 美元，收盤下跌 0.5%，至 493.50 美元。該股短暫觸及 402.98 美元的低點，然後小幅回升。

Despite the recent setback, Meta remains up 42.5% year-to-date, having reached an all-time high of $527.34 earlier this month on April 5th.

儘管最近遭遇挫折，Meta 年初至今仍上漲 42.5%，並於本月初 4 月 5 日達到 527.34 美元的歷史新高。

On April 18th, Meta debuted its Llama 3 AI model, which was incorporated into the Meta AI chatbot accessible across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. While reports have emerged of bizarre interactions generated by the chatbot, Meta claims that human evaluators ranked Llama 3 higher than competing models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT-3.5.

4 月 18 日，Meta 首次推出了 Llama 3 AI 模型，該模型已整合到可透過 Facebook、Instagram、WhatsApp 和 Facebook Messenger 存取的 Meta AI 聊天機器人中。雖然有報導稱該聊天機器人會產生奇怪的交互，但 Meta 聲稱，人類評估者對 Llama 的評分高於競爭模型（包括 OpenAI 的 ChatGPT-3.5）。