• Meta is building a $10 billion AI data center in northeast Louisiana.
• Entergy Louisiana says it needs to build a major new natural gas plant to power the facility.
• The utility wants permission to pass the plant's construction costs onto its entire customer base.

In Louisiana, a battle is heating up over who will pay for the new power plants needed to serve the $10 billion data center Meta is building in the state's northeastern corner.

Meta announced in December the 2,000-acre Richland Parish data center campus, which is expected to be completed in 2030. The company plans to use the data center to train AI models.

Consumer advocates and climate groups filed new testimony with the Louisiana Public Service Commission on April 11, pushing the state regulator to reject a request by Meta's electricity provider to shift $5 billion in construction costs for the plants on its entire customer base.

Entergy Louisiana has proposed building three new natural gas power plants to serve Meta's data centers in the state. As an investor-owned utility, Entergy can seek regulatory approval to bill its customers for the costs of building the new plants as long as it successfully shows that the plants are in the public interest.

Entergy has argued that Meta's data center could be "transformative" for Lousiana once built, saying the facility could provide 300 to 500 jobs with an average salary of $82,000.

The testimony from advocates and climate groups argued that the utility's 1.1 million electric customers shouldn't have to foot the bill for Meta's power appetite.

Entergy did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Meta declined to comment.

Beyond the $5 billion in cost recovery for the plants, the utility's plan would "put other ratepayers at risk of having to absorb hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, of additional costs" associated with Meta's data center, said Cathy Kunkel, an energy consultant testifying on behalf of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Alliance for Affordable Energy.

That's because Meta's power needs have grown since the Big Tech giant first announced its plans to build an AI data center in Louisiana, adding to Entergy's costs of service.

Earlier this year, Meta was planning for more than two gigawatts of capacity in Louisiana, according to a Threads post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in January. That amount of electricity is double what is being planned at the Crusoe data center in Abilene, Texas, widely thought to be the first site for Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture between Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank to build AI data centers in the US.

Since then, Meta has asked Entergy for even more electricity, according to the utility's filings with the LPSC. The exact amount requested is unknown, as the information is redacted from the filings.

Saddling customers with Meta's costs is especially risky given the uncertainties surrounding AI's electricity demand, Kunkel said. AI models could become more energy efficient in the future, or companies could focus more on energy efficiency as a means to enhance profit, she said. That could result in Meta "choosing to scale back or exit" the project early. Recent reports that Amazon and Microsoft are pulling out of data center leases have helped stoke concern that the AI development boom is slowing down.

Entergy's request for cost recovery has attracted a wide range of "intervenors," or parties that want to weigh in with an opinion before the LPSC. Even Walmart in Louisiana has testified, seeking assurances that Meta's escalating power demand won't affect it and other Entergy customers in the state.

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The European Commission issued a €500 million fine to Apple and a €200 million fine to Meta yesterday, saying that both companies violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The companies are required to bring their platforms into compliance within 60 days or face "periodic penalty payments," the EC said.

These are the first two non-compliance decisions adopted by the commission under the DMA. The EC said it determined that Apple breached its anti-steering obligation and that "Meta breached the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data."

"Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms," said European Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera.

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At the Meta monopoly trial, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom accused Mark Zuckerberg of draining Instagram resources to stifle growth out of sheer jealousy.

According to Systrom, Zuckerberg may have been directly involved in yanking resources after integrating Instagram and Facebook because "as the founder of Facebook, he felt a lot of emotion around which one was better—Instagram or Facebook," The Financial Times reported.

In 2025, Instagram is projected to account for more than half of Meta's ad revenue, according to eMarketer's forecast. Since 2019, Instagram has generated more ad revenue per user than Facebook, eMarketer noted, and today makes Meta twice as much per user as the closest rival that Meta claims it fears most, TikTok.

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WhatsApp is launching a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature that aims to prevent people from taking conversations outside the app. When the setting is turned on, you can block others from exporting your chat history and automatically downloading photos and videos sent in the app.

The feature will prevent people from using messages for Meta AI as well, which you can currently use to ask questions within a chat and generate images.

By default, WhatsApp saves photos and videos in a chat to your phone’s local storage. It also lets you and your recipients export chats (with or without media) to your messages, email, or notes app. The Advanced Chat Privacy setting will prevent this in group and individual chats.

This feature still doesn’t stop people from taking screenshots of your messages or manually downloading media from chats, WhatsApp spokesperson Zade Alsawah confirmed to The Verge. However, WhatsApp says this is its “first version” of the feature, and that it plans to add more protections down the line.

“We think this feature is best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature,” WhatsApp says in its announcement. WABetaInfo first spotted this feature earlier this month, and now it’s rolling out to the latest version of the app. You can turn on the setting by tapping the name of your chat and selecting Advanced Chat Privacy.

Update, April 23rd: Added information from WhatsApp.

When it comes to investing, a $3,000 position may not sound like much. While it's not enough to deploy into multiple individual stocks, it's enough to allow one to take $1,000 positions in three different stocks, and that includes artificial intelligence (AI).

Due to a recent pullback in stocks, many AI stocks are on sale. Thus, now is likely an excellent time to take starter positions, and these stocks could serve investors well.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Alphabet

When it comes to AI investing, it's likely too early to count out Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG). Alphabet first began using AI in 2001, and since then, it has been a pioneer in the technology.

It was only with OpenAI's generative AI breakthrough in 2023 that some began to doubt Alphabet's strength in the AI market. Although the company has followed up with Google Gemini and plans to spend $75 billion in capital expenditures (CapEx) in 2025 alone, Alphabet has not eased doubters' fears.

Nonetheless, the Google parent could easily rebound. Alphabet held about $96 billion in liquidity at the end of 2024, and it generated around $73 billion in free cash flow, a figure that does not include CapEx expenses. Those results show that it can afford such investments. Additionally, its massive ad business continues to grow revenue at double-digit rates, and the 31% revenue increase in Google Cloud shows that it's diversifying its revenue sources.

Investors should also remember that amid doubts, Alphabet stock has risen since OpenAI's generative AI breakthrough in 2023. Moreover, its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19 sits at a multi-year low, making it increasingly likely that now is an opportune time to add shares of this internet giant.

Meta Platforms

Facebook parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) built its success on becoming the dominant social media stock and creating a wildly successful digital ad business based on that.

However, with about 3.35 billion users logging on to a Meta-owned social media site daily, its sites seem to be approaching global saturation. Thus, after failing to draw investor interest through the metaverse, the company has pivoted into AI.

It has developed a generative AI assistant that helps Meta users generate images, personalize experiences, and use open-source AI. It just released Llama 4, its latest family of large language models, and a paid subscription service is also in the works. Thanks to sites such as Facebook and Instagram, Meta accumulated a treasure trove of data on much of the population that may give it a competitive advantage.

It holds about $78 billion in liquidity, not including the $52 billion it generated in free cash flow, leaving it with tremendous optionality regarding AI investing. With that, it announced plans to invest $60 billion to $65 billion in CapEx to stay competitive in the AI race.

Like Alphabet, Meta stock has risen steadily since Open AI's generative AI release. With a P/E ratio of 21, investors may want to consider this stock while it trades at a reasonable valuation.

Amazon

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been adept at staying at the forefront of tech innovation, and AI is no exception. The company's cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), pioneered the cloud industry and remains the leading provider. However, since the cloud facilitates AI functionality in many cases, Amazon had to become adept with the technology to stay relevant in its field.

The e-commerce side of the business also uses AI. The technology personalizes customer experiences and improves the content and advertising appearing on its platform. In its third-party seller business, AI helps sellers streamline operations and provides overviews to evaluate a seller's performance.

Like its mega-tech peers, Amazon also plans to spend heavily on capital expenditures. It implied that it would spend $100 billion, most of which would go to AI. Investors should also like that it can probably afford these investments because it holds $101 billion in liquidity and generated $38 billion in free cash flow in 2024.

Indeed, Amazon stock has dropped dramatically in recent weeks amid the market sell-off. Nonetheless, investors should note that its P/E ratio has fallen to 31, a multi-year low for Amazon stock. That factor likely makes now a good time to add shares while the stock is comparatively inexpensive.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $561,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $606,106!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 811% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 153% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is a dominant technology-driven enterprise that has customers all across the globe. It got here thanks to fantastic growth. Between 2014 and 2024, the company's revenue increased at a compound annual rate of 22%. This rapid ascent has made Amazon one of the world's most valuable businesses.

Viewing things with a fresh perspective today, with an eye toward the future, you might be wondering if the company can continue on its impressive trajectory. There are reasons to remain bullish. Here's why Amazon is the smartest growth stock to buy in April with $2,000.

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Massive end markets

If a company is lucky, it'll benefit from one secular trend. Amazon stands out because it has multiple tailwinds working in its favor. Additionally, the business operates in massive global end markets.

Take the e-commerce sector. Almost 40% of all spending online in the U.S. goes through amazon.com. Given that Grand View Research estimates the worldwide retail e-commerce market to grow at a nearly 12% annualized rate from its already large size of $6 trillion, Amazon is set to capture a lot of this opportunity.

Cloud computing is another important area. Amazon Web Services (AWS) posted 19% sales growth in Q4, with a stellar 37% operating margin. It's the industry leader with the most market share. And according to Grand View Research, the global market is worth about $800 billion today and will be worth much more in the future.

There's also digital advertising, a booming money-maker. In 2024, Amazon raked in more than $17 billion in revenue (up 18% year over year), which is surely generating a high margin. Only Alphabet and Meta Platforms have a bigger presence in digital advertising.

Combined, these industries are valued in the trillions of dollars. This gives Amazon plenty of opportunity to drive growth.

What about artificial intelligence?

Another secular trend that has come up in recent years is artificial intelligence (AI). Amazon has already been using AI capabilities throughout its business. For example, the online marketplace uses AI for personalized shopping recommendations. Prime Video uses AI to suggest shows and movies to watch. Alexa also leans on AI to process commands and respond accordingly.

Looking ahead, AI is and will continue to play a more pronounced role for the company, particularly within AWS. AWS offers a broad suite of AI tools and services for clients, like Bedrock for building generative AI apps, Translate for language translation, and Kendra for search functionality.

Amazon is planning to spend $100 billion on capital expenditures in 2025. "The vast majority of that capex spend is on AI for AWS," CEO Andy Jassy said on the Q4 2024 earnings call. He went on to declare that AI "is one of these once-in-a-lifetime type of business opportunities."

Durable growth

Investors gravitate to the fastest-growing companies. Maybe it's because they are the easiest to spot. And for sure it's because they believe they can generate huge returns over time by owning them.

Instead of focusing on how rapid the gains are, perhaps it's a better idea to look for durable growth. These are businesses that should see revenue increase at a much faster clip than GDP over an extended period of time, not just for a few years before fizzling out. While Amazon was an unbelievably fast grower in its early years, it has now transformed into registering healthy expansion.

Having multiple powerful secular trends working in its favor is helpful. What's more, Amazon's wide economic moat, supported by its brand, switching costs, network effects, and cost advantage, substantially decreases the chances the business ever gets disrupted.

These factors make it the smartest growth stock to buy with $2,000, in my opinion. As of April 21, the shares trade at a price-to-sales ratio of 2.9. This is very reasonable for such a dominant enterprise.

Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $561,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $606,106!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 811% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 153% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Neil Patel and his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Could investing in a simple, low-fee S&P 500 index fund today set you up for life? You may not want to know the answer. You may prefer to hunt for exciting growth stocks instead. But I'm here to tell you that regularly plunking meaningful sums in an S&P 500 index fund can do wonders over long periods.

Even Warren Buffett has endorsed S&P 500 index funds, stipulating in his will that much of what he leaves his wife should go into one. Here's a look at why you might consider investing in an S&P 500 index fund, too.

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Meet the S&P 500 index

An S&P 500 index fund is an index fund that tracks the S&P 500 -- an index (a grouping) of 500 of the biggest companies in the U.S. The fund will hold roughly or exactly the same stocks in roughly the same proportion, aiming for roughly the same performance -- less fees. And there are some very low fees out there.

Here are the recent top 10 components in the index by weight:

Data source: Slickcharts.com, as of April 16, 2025.

It's worth noting that this index is a market-capitalization-weighted one, meaning that the biggest companies in it will move its needle the most. For example, you can see in the table above that Microsoft's weighting is about four times that of Tesla, so Microsoft's stock-price moves will make a much bigger difference in the index than will Tesla's. Of course, these are still the top 10 components. General Mills is also in the index, recently in 255th place, and with a weighting of just 0.07%. Toy company Hasbro, in 488th place, recently had a weighting of 0.02%.

Altogether, these 500 companies make up about 80% of the total value of the U.S. stock market. Thus, the S&P 500 is often used as a proxy for the market. It's mainly made up of giant, large, and medium-sized companies, though. If you want a more accurate proxy, you might opt for a broader index fund, such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI), which aims to include all U.S. stocks, including small and medium-sized ones, or the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (NYSEMKT: VT), encompassing just about all the stocks in the world.

Why invest in an S&P 500 index fund?

Here's a top-notch S&P 500 index fund to consider -- the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO). Its expense ratio (annual fee) is a mere 0.03%, meaning that for every $1,000 you have invested in the fund, you'll pay an annual fee of... $3.

Why invest in such a fund? Well, because it can perform really well over time and it's way easier to just keep adding money to it than to spend time studying investing and scouring the stock market for the best investments. Instead of looking for a few needles in a haystack, buy the haystack!

Owning shares of an S&P 500 index fund means you'll quickly own (small) chunks of 500 of the biggest companies in America -- and as some companies grow and others shrink over time, the index will be adding and dropping components accordingly.

The table below shows how big a nest egg you might build over time in an S&P 500 index fund, if your money grows at 8%. For context, the S&P 500 has averaged annual gains of around 10% over many decades -- including dividends and not including the effect of inflation. So using 8% is a mite conservative.

Source: Calculations by author.

If that's not convincing enough, know that you probably can't do as well with some other, managed large-cap stock mutual fund. The S&P 500 index has actually outperformed most such funds, which tend to be run by highly trained financial professionals working hard to outperform the index. Over the past 15 years, for example, the S&P 500 bested 89.5% of all large-cap funds.

Whether you opt for a low-fee S&P 500 index fund or not, be sure to have a solid retirement plan, and to be saving and investing in order to have a comfortable financial future.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 781%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 149% for the S&P 500.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Selena Maranjian has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Hasbro and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Market turmoil has sent tech stocks into a tailspin in early 2025. As Donald Trump's trade policies rattle global markets, even the most dominant technology companies haven't been spared. The S&P 500 has shed over 11% year to date as I write this, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 has plummeted more than 16%. For opportunistic investors, however, this pullback presents a compelling chance to acquire shares of world-class businesses at bargain prices.

Rather than fleeing technology during this downturn, forward-thinking investors should consider building positions in companies poised to benefit from unstoppable trends like artificial intelligence (AI). Despite near-term headwinds, these foundational technologies continue transforming industries worldwide. Two tech giants, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), have been particularly hard hit and now offer exceptional value for long-term shareholders willing to weather the current volatility.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

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Nvidia: The AI hardware leader at a steep discount

Nvidia shares have plummeted 34% from their 52-week high amid escalating U.S.-China tensions and new export restrictions. This dramatic sell-off has compressed Nvidia's valuation to just 21.8 times earnings estimates, far lower than the multiple it commanded at recent peaks. Last week's announcement that the company expects $5.5 billion in write-offs related to its China-specific H20 chip only accelerated the decline, yet the fundamental growth story remains intact for markets outside China.

What separates Nvidia from competitors is its formidable economic moat, built on both market-leading graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware and its proprietary Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) software platform. This potent combination creates significant switching costs for AI developers, allowing Nvidia to maintain its dominance even as other tech giants such as Advanced Micro Devices work to develop alternatives. Though some analysts expect China-related revenue to rapidly approach zero, ongoing AI investments by businesses worldwide should support strong GPU sales throughout 2025.

The AI revolution remains in its earliest stages, with Nvidia positioned as the primary beneficiary of this exponential growth market. The company has expanded beyond its core GPU business into networking, software, and services, significantly enlarging its addressable market. With shares trading at their lowest valuation in years, investors have a rare opportunity to acquire this AI juggernaut at prices that substantially undervalue its long-term potential in the face of continued global AI adoption and despite current geopolitical uncertainties.

Meta Platforms: Social media giant with AI upside

Meta shares have tumbled 33% from their 52-week highs amid the broader market sell-off as I write this, creating an attractive entry point for investors in this social media powerhouse. Its stock now trades at just 19 times forward earnings estimates, down from 24 a year ago. With nearly 4 billion monthly active users across its applications, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, Meta maintains unrivaled scale in the social media space, benefiting from the secular shift toward digital advertising.

Moreover, the social media titan recently unveiled Llama 4, its next-generation large language model capable of understanding and generating content across various formats, including text, images, and video. This multimodal AI system puts Meta roughly at par with the latest models from Anthropic, Alphabet, and OpenAI, but Meta's true advantage lies in its unmatched distribution network.

As AI competition shifts from model development to distribution and monetization, Meta's massive user base provides a natural platform to deploy these technologies at scale, potentially driving higher engagement and advertising effectiveness.

While tariff-induced economic slowdowns could temporarily depress advertising spending, Meta might benefit from the current uncertainty surrounding TikTok's U.S. operations as advertisers seek alternative platforms. The company's dual strategy focuses on user engagement improvements through features like Stories and Reels, while enhancing its ad targeting algorithms to deliver better results for advertisers.

Though Meta faces potential regulatory challenges with a monopoly case in the U.S., and its Reality Labs division continues to consume billions in capital, these risks appear more than accounted for at current price levels. For investors seeking exposure to both digital advertising and AI, Meta offers a compelling combination of current profitability and growth potential.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $532,771!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $593,970!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 781% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 149% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. George Budwell has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

With the return of market volatility, anxiety levels are rising for retirement savers, but if you're not going to be tapping into your savings for many years, there's no reason to worry. Stock market dips are historically the best time to invest, because lower share prices allow you to gain more of a company's earnings, which leads to great returns when the markets recover.

To help you in your search for undervalued growth stocks, here are two excellent candidates.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

1. Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is coming off a year of strong growth as it continued to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) to bring more personalization to its social media platforms. The company is set for strong growth yet trades at a reasonable 24 times earnings.

Meta Platforms spends billions on technology every year to support the growth of its apps, and importantly, AI. More than 700 million monthly active users have tried its Meta AI assistant, and management expects that number to grow to 1 billion in 2025.

Meta AI is quickly scaling into one of the most used AI assistants. The growing adoption highlights the advantage the company has with more than 3.3 billion people using its services every day across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads.

This large user base drives substantial advertising revenues. Last year, Meta Platforms earned $62 billion of net income on $164 billion of revenue, with the top line growing 22%. Other than Meta AI, the company also offers professional AI tools that improve ad targeting across its family of apps, which is benefiting the business. Over the long term, Meta could discover new revenue streams from offering premium AI services that pads the company's bottom line.

Analysts expect Meta to deliver 16% annualized earnings growth in the coming years. While no one has a crystal ball for the stock in the near term, investors that buy shares today should see returns that roughly follow the underlying growth of the business from here.

2. The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) is a leading digital ad-buying platform that is benefiting from the growth in digital advertising -- a market valued at $800 billion and growing.

A small revenue miss compared to expectations last quarter sent the stock plummeting, but nothing has changed the company's competitive position or long-term opportunity, which means investors have a great opportunity to buy shares on the cheap.

Ad agencies and brands love The Trade Desk because it offers a wide range of ad inventory, and it offers the technology to make profitable ad-buying decisions. For example, its Kokai AI platform can quickly sort through millions of ad impressions every second to help advertisers find the right deal. Better pricing, targeting, and ad performance is helping The Trade Desk gain more clients.

The Trade Desk generates revenue by charging a fee of the total amount its customers spend on ads and other services. Revenue grew 26% to $2.4 billion in 2024, and the business earned a healthy profit margin of 16%.

Connected TV continues to be one of biggest opportunities, where The Trade Desk has valuable partnerships with Roku and Disney. The connected TV ad market is estimated to reach $46 billion by 2026, according to Statista, providing tremendous upside for the company.

Revenue is expected to grow 18% this year, yet the stock is trading at its lowest valuation in years. Analysts expect earnings to reach $3.89 by 2028, which makes the current share price of around $50 look like a bargain. Investors that take advantage of the sell-off are likely looking at handsome gains down the road.

Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now?

Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $495,226!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $679,900!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 796% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 155% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 10, 2025

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Roku, The Trade Desk, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Later today, a former Facebook employee, Sarah Wynn-Williams, will testify to Congress that Meta executives "repeatedly" sought to "undermine US national security and betray American values" in "secret" efforts to "win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China."

In her prepared remarks, which will be delivered at a Senate subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism hearing this afternoon, Wynn-Williams accused Meta of working "hand in glove" with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). That partnership allegedly included efforts to "construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics" as well as provide the CCP with "access to Meta user data—including that of Americans."

Wynn-Williams worked as Facebook's Director of Global Public Policy from 2011 to 2017. She left at the height of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, just before Mark Zuckerberg got grilled by Congress over misinformation and election interference on its platform.

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Meta’s latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company’s chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power.

The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government’s antitrust case against the company. 

“He’s recently tried a reinvention in which he is now a great advocate of free speech, after being an advocate of censorship in China and in this country for years,” subcommittee Chair Josh Hawley (R-MO) said, pointing to longtime conservative allegations that Meta has suppressed things like vaccine skepticism and the Hunter Biden laptop story. “Now that’s all wiped away. Now he’s on Joe Rogan and says that he is Mr. Free Speech, he is Mr. MAGA, he’s a whole new man, and his company, they’re a whole new company. Do you buy this latest reinvention of Mark Zuckerberg?”

“If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why is he trying to silence me?” Wynn-Williams asked in response. Meta convinced an arbitrator to order her to stop making disparaging statements and halt further publishing and promotion of the book, which details Meta’s alleged dealings with the Chinese government and claims of sexual harassment from a top executive. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone has called Careless People  “defamatory,” but the book’s publisher said it would “continue to support and promote it.” 

Wynn-Williams also told Hawley that Zuckerberg “is a man who wears many different costumes. When I was there, he wanted the president of China to name his first child, he was learning Mandarin, he was censoring to his heart’s content. Now his new costume is MMA fighting or free speech. We don’t know what the next costume’s going to be, but it will be something different. It’s whatever gets him closest to power.”

At the hearing, Wynn-Williams testified that during her time at the company between 2011 and 2017, Meta and Zuckerberg were willing to “undermine American national security” in service of currying favor with the Chinese government. She accused Meta of working on “censorship tools” that the Chinese government could use to silence critics and provided the Chinese Communist Party American user data.

In a statement, Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels called Wynn-Williams’ testimony “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims. While Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: we do not operate our services in China today.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she found it “ironic” that China was a focus of the hearing, given that when she tried to pass a tech antitrust bill, “one of the things that kept being thrown in my face and in those of others that work on this, is that ‘you’re actually going to destroy us and then China will dominate,’” she said. “Your book actually reveals the extent to which Facebook was willing to put growth over the US national interest to gain favor with the Chinese Communist Party.”  

Lawmakers dared Zuckerberg to testify before their committee himself to clear up their issues with her statements. “Stop trying to silence her, stop trying to gag her, stop trying to hide behind your lawyers and millions of dollars in legal fees you’re trying to impose on her,” said Hawley. “Come to this committee, take the oath, sit there, let us question you, and give the American people the truth. We will be waiting for you.”

Wynn-Williams told the subcommittee her testimony “may be the last time I’m allowed to speak” given the legal restrictions. “It’s not going to be the last time you’re allowed to speak if we have anything to do with it,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “What I would say to Mark Zuckerberg is, stop gagging Ms. Wynn-Williams, let her speak the truth, and you come here and tell us your version of the truth, if you have the guts to do it.”