Meta Connect 2024: Zuckerberg Presents Groundbreaking Technologies and Plans to Continue High Investments

Mark Zuckerberg has succeeded in transporting the atmosphere of ancient Rome to modern times. On the occasion of Meta Connect 2024 in Menlo Park, California, the CEO of Meta Platforms appeared in a custom-made T-shirt with the Latin inscription "aut Zuck aut nihil," which translates to "all or nothing." This motto was also reflected in the ambitious projects Zuckerberg presented, including a functional version of the augmented reality glasses named Orion. "It has been an exciting year, but also a very busy year," said Zuckerberg. "Many things we've been talking about for a long time are now becoming reality. We are slowly starting to see what the future of computing and human interaction will look like." With Orion, Meta introduced glasses that project holograms over the physical world. These AR glasses are still in the internal testing phase, but Zuckerberg was optimistic: "I think Orion lets us look into an exciting future." In addition to the AR glasses, Meta also unveiled a series of new AI features at the conference, including an AI assistant that responds to voice commands and can be equipped with celebrity voices. "I believe that voice is a much more natural way of interacting with AI than text," said Zuckerberg. Meta's investments in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and metaverse technologies are reaching enormous proportions. The company plans to invest between 37 and 40 billion dollars in these areas in 2024. This has led to losses in the metaverse unit Reality Labs, which alone lost 8.3 billion dollars in the first half of 2023. Analysts from various investment firms reacted differently to the presentation. Bank of America Securities raised its price target for Meta Platforms to 630 dollars, emphasizing the market potential of AI glasses compared to VR products. Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett set the price target even higher at 811 dollars, rating Meta positively due to advanced innovations in the AI sector. Wedbush analysts saw a significant market opportunity in the products shown, particularly in the Orion AR glasses, and gave Meta an Outperform rating with a price target of 600 dollars. Chris Versace from TheStreet Pro also raised his price target for Meta to 630 dollars and praised the progress in AI models, which are expected to enable new functions and higher user interaction. Analysts worldwide agree: Meta Platforms is on a promising path regarding future innovations and market opportunities. The next generation of computing and human interaction seems closer than ever before.