Meta has recorded a higher-than-anticipated profit of $13.5 billion for the second quarter of 2024. The financial results for the period covering April through June this year sent the company share price upward by around 7% following publication on Wednesday. Revenue for the same period was posted at $39 billion, a 22% increase over the same period last year, exceeding market expectations. Meta founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg commented on the results, backing the performance of Meta AI to underpin further growth when he said, “We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year.” Zuckerberg added, “We’ve released the first frontier-level open source AI model, we continue to see good traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and we’re driving good growth across our apps.” The parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp set revenue expectations for the third quarter to fall between $38.5 billion and $41 billion. Zuckerberg promotes open source for AI growth Meta will be relatively happy with its returns, especially given the contrasting fortunes of its rival big tech companies, such as Microsoft and Google. At Microsoft, shares dropped by around 8% on Tuesday as its Azure cloud computing enterprise recorded sluggish growth, despite a rise of 15% year on year.