META
QCOM
New money, same old Meta?
Meta’s latest headline isn’t another ad product or a metaverse encore. It’s creator payments: the company has started paying a limited group of creators in USDC through crypto wallets on Solana and Polygon, with Stripe handling the plumbing and Circle issuing the stablecoin.
That sounds niche, but the direction is pretty obvious. If Meta can make payouts faster and less painful — especially across borders — creators may stick around longer and move more of their business through Meta’s apps. And when you’re talking about a company that already paid nearly $3 billion to creators in 2025, shaving friction off that machine is not exactly pocket change.
Why investors are paying attention
This rollout starts in Colombia and the Philippines, but Meta says it could expand to more than 160 countries by year-end. That makes it feel less like a one-off experiment and more like a test drive for a global payout rail that could scale.
Meanwhile, Meta’s broader AI story keeps getting fatter. Qualcomm’s CEO said Meta is working with OpenAI on “secret form factors” for AI wearables, and Meta-backed Scale AI just landed a $500 million Pentagon award. So, yes, the company is still juggling ads, creators, AI, and hardware dreams like a Silicon Valley octopus.
The stock still has to prove it
Even with all that narrative fuel, META is still trading like a stock that needs a little reassurance from the chart gods. It’s below key moving averages, momentum is fading, and traders are still watching whether this bounce has enough gas to stick.
Big picture: Meta’s trying to turn creator payouts into infrastructure, not just a cost center. If it works, that’s one more reason for investors to stay interested while the stock repairs itself.