Meta Rolls Out More AI Tools, But Our Focus Remains on This Key Metric

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In our opening comments today, we shared an update on Meta's (META) custom AI silicon efforts, explaining why that is another layer of support for our views on Marvell (MRVL) and Broadcom (AVGO) .

We are turning back to Meta this afternoon because the company is introducing new AI tools and features on Facebook Marketplace. The goal of this initiative, per Meta, is to “make selling more efficient so sellers can list more items with less effort, and shoppers can find more of what they’re looking for with every search.”

We would argue that it’s more to keep users on the site or keep them coming back to the site so they can be served up with more ads. Remember, with slower growth prospects ahead for Meta’s daily active people (DAP), which stood at 3.58 billion exiting Q4 2025, the revenue lever it has to focus on is driving average revenue per person higher.

One of those levers is keeping folks on Facebook or having them come back so they can be served up more ads. If the name of the game when it comes to U.S.-Iran and oil is “duration,” when it comes to Facebook, the two words are “frequency” and “duration.”

Meta is also leveraging AI to improve its scam detection tools, but we suspect one of the better uses will be using AI to better match targeted advertising to people’s preferences and interests. We know it’s in the works and look forward to the positive impact on the company’s average revenue per user metrics as well as its cost structure.

We also look forward to hearing more about the integration of Manus, which Meta acquired in December. To refresh some memories, Manus specializes in autonomous agents capable of complex tasks like research, coding, and analysis. The thinking is that Manus should bolster Meta’s ability to compete, especially in the agentic space, against OpenAI, Anthropic, Google (GOOGL) , and others.

What About the Shares?

In terms of META shares, following their post-earnings pop in January, they have pulled back by more than 13% to a level that equates to the average of our late-October to mid-November buys last year. If our position size in META wasn't ~4.1% of the Portfolio, we'd be nibbling on the shares.

Over the last few weeks, it appears the shares are basing as they flirt with resistance at the intersection of the 50-day and 100-day moving averages near $655. One potential catalyst on the horizon will be Meta’s Q1 2026 results. If it can deliver not just better revenue and related metrics but also expand margins more than expected, that would be another proof point for their internal AI efforts and be a catalyst for the shares.

Facebook Marketplace: A Personal Story

On a personal note, when it comes to Facebook Marketplace, many of you know that I recently sold one home and will soon be closing on another with a tentative move-in date most likely in late April. As we were getting ready to move out of our old house, I sold several pieces of furniture and other items using Facebook Marketplace. I uploaded the pictures of said pieces to ChatGPT and had it spit out a description of the items using the following prompt: "Please render a Facebook Marketplace optimized description for each of these items, including an eye-catching title." When done, I asked ChatGPT for reasonable price ranges for each item, and then I posted it all on Facebook Marketplace.

Having gone through that process, it makes quite a bit of sense for Meta to launch these AI-enabled tools for Marketplace. And those tools include much of what I did with ChatGPT:

You can now upload your item images and let Meta AI do the rest — automatically creating a draft listing, filling in details, and even suggesting a price based on similar items listed in your area. Read more here

And for those wondering, while there were a few false starts, I managed to sell just about everything I set out to!

At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long META and GOOGL.