With a year-to-date (YTD) loss of 4.66%, Meta Platforms (META) is underperforming the markets this year. Among its Magnificent 7 peers, only Microsoft (MSFT) has fared worse this year. Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) is, meanwhile, the best-performing among the lot, a position the Google parent also held last year.
The divergence in price action among Big Tech companies can largely be attributed to market perceptions of their artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. Alphabet proved critics wrong and is literally firing on all cylinders. The company’s core search and digital advertising business has managed to protect its turf from upstarts like OpenAI and its ad business is growing way faster than its two bigger competitors, namely Microsoft and Amazon (AMZN).
