Billionaire hedge fund managers are putting money into Meta Platforms, Inc. in larger amounts, believing that it is the next Apple.
As of December 24, the stock price closed at $667.55, which is a 0.39 % rise over the holiday periods, and the market capitalization of the company was also worth more than $1.7 trillion.
The driving force behind such excitement can be linked to the potential that the future smart-glasses platform created by Meta would result in the paradigm shift of computing, similar to the success of iPhone in 2007.
Smart Glasses Surge by Meta
In September, Meta launched its Ray-Ban Display AR glasses, which have a right-lens display and a Meta Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant.
This debut is seen as a trial run of Orion, due in 2027, which will also feature holography with dual lenses running on super intelligence, an artificial intelligence model that is hypothesized to be superior to human cognitive ability.
According to a report by Counterpoint Research, AI smart glasses accounted for 78% of total shipments in H1 2025, up from 46% in H1 2024 and 66% in H2 2024, largely due to the dominance of Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses. The AI glasses segment grew by over 250% YoY, significantly outpacing the overall market.
Morningstar analyst Malik Ahmed Khan writes,
“Meta is a digital advertising juggernaut poised to increase its market share.”
Hedge Funds Agree
Israel Englander of Millennium Management added 793,500 shares of Meta Platforms and 2.2 million shares of Alphabet.
Both stocks rank among his top 10 holdings. Ken Griffin’s Citadel bought 1.4 million shares, the fourth largest ownership, and Philippe Laffont’s Coatue gained an additional 355,000 shares, a new title as the main bet of this firm.
The three entities have all performed better than the S&P 500 over a period of three years as indicated by their Form 13F filings as compiled by WhaleWisdom.
Bright Horizon or Risky Leap?
Even though Reality Labs, the division of Meta, is losing billions of dollars year after year, its Q3 2025 ad revenue increased 14%, driven by AI-powered targeting and creative tools that improved Instagram and Facebook’s conversions.
In case Orion manages to incorporate superintelligence, the smart-glasses platform may overshadow the smartphones, making Meta a hardware giant.
However, the threat of competition with the vision pro produced by Apple is also very high and implementation will be the key to success. To patient investors, this move by a billionaire is an indication that the 2030s will witness its dominance.
