Bank of America Maintains Buy on Meta, Eyes $835 Price Target

On July 2, Bank of America analyst Justin Post maintained a "Buy" rating on Meta Platforms stock with a price objective of $835, anchoring the call on the company's potential to develop a cloud services or AI infrastructure business as a new revenue stream alongside its core social media and advertising operations.

The bullish thesis rests on Meta's planned capital intensity. Bank of America noted that Wall Street expects Meta to spend approximately $850 billion（約140兆円） on capital expenditures between 2026 and 2030. Under the firm's model, if building one gigawatt of AI capacity costs approximately $45 billion（約7.2兆円）, Meta's planned investment could translate into roughly 19 gigawatts of computing power. This scale positions the company as a credible entrant into cloud infrastructure—a market historically dominated by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

At the same time, the analyst flagged material risks. Building a cloud business is not straightforward, and if Meta lacks clear cost or technological advantages, such a division could operate at lower profit margins than the company's current advertising model. The Bank of America research team noted that Amazon and Google—established technology giants with vast resources—took several years to make their respective cloud divisions profitable. This historical precedent underscores that execution risk and time-to-profitability are genuine concerns even for well-capitalized entrants.

Despite these challenges, Bank of America remained optimistic about Meta's prospects, viewing the infrastructure investment and cloud opportunity as a credible path to new revenue and potential long-term shareholder value creation.

Bank of America's July 2 buy rating reflects confidence in Meta's capital intensity and long-term infrastructure play. The firm's analysis hinges on a specific math: if Meta's planned $850 billion（約140兆円） spend between 2026 and 2030 translates into ~19 gigawatts of AI capacity at ~$45 billion（約7.2兆円） per gigawatt, the company could establish meaningful competitive footprint in cloud infrastructure—a market dominated by Amazon and Google but one that Meta may be positioned to enter as a differentiated player. The analyst frames this as a potential new revenue stream, moving beyond Meta's core advertising business.

However, the Bank of America commentary also surfaces a material caveat: cloud business success is not guaranteed, and history shows that even the largest technology companies required years to achieve profitability in this segment. Without clear cost or technological advantages, margins could compress, making the venture less accretive than a pure-play capital allocation. The firm remains optimistic despite these risks, suggesting it believes Meta's scale, engineering talent, and AI infrastructure investments may provide an edge that others lacked at similar stages.