Meta has struggled at selling anything other than ads. Will AI be different?

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Meta is once again trying to prove it can make money by doing something other than selling ads. It's not a strategy that's worked in the past, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting artificial intelligence will bring better results. The company said this week that it will begin testing two subscription services for its ChatGPT-like Meta AI app and website. Those paid offerings, available first in Singapore, Guatemala and Bolivia, coincide with the official release of premium subscription plans for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and higher-tier versions of its verification subscription service , which is designed to help businesses protect their brand. Also this week, Zuckerberg said at Meta's annual shareholder meeting that a potential cloud computing business is " definitely on the table ," a move that could eventually pit the company against Amazon , Microsoft and Google in cloud infrastructure. Since Zuckerberg's company, previously known as Facebook, began selling digital ads almost two decades ago, advertising has been its only real business. In its earnings report last month, Meta said that nearly 98% of its $56.3 billion in first-quarter revenue came from advertising. …