Meta Platforms is heading into its largest youth social media trial yet, with 29 U.S. states and thousands of plaintiffs challenging the company's alleged addictive design and children's data collection, raising material questions about future platform rules, compliance costs, and product features. The California federal trial could lead to remedies like age limits, time caps, or removal of features such as infinite scroll, potentially affecting how Meta monetizes engagement across Facebook and Instagram and interacting directly with the company's AI-driven recommendation systems. Meta's narrative projects $369.0 billion revenue and $111.2 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 19.7% yearly revenue growth and a $40.6 billion earnings increase from $70.6 billion today, while some optimistic analysts assumed about US$420 billion in revenue and US$127 billion in earnings by 2029. The company has recently launched open-weight AI models like Muse Spark 1.2 and Muse Glimmer and ramped up multibillion-dollar data-center commitments, but the unresolved youth addiction and data privacy lawsuits remain a set of risks investors should be aware of.
