Trump Made His Biggest August Buy a Tech Giant That Jumped Over 30% in Seven Weeks

In a breaking news story, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) stock appears in the largest bracket of President Donald Trump’s newest disclosure. A periodic transaction report filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics covers more than five hundred transactions, including a Meta Platforms purchase on August 21 in a $5 million to $25 million range.

Shares of Meta Platforms closed at $549.51 on the trade date and $721.31 on October 7, a 31% gain, and traded this afternoon at $714.52, down 0.9%. That huge gain wasn’t a broad-based mega-cap technology story. Over the same window, from the August 21 close to the October 7 close, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose from $483.24 to $529.76, a gain of 10%, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) rose from $344.60 to $350.50, a gain of 2%.

META stock outran both by a wide margin, which places the move in something specific to Meta Platforms rather than in a rising tide across large-cap technology. Both comparison figures run through the October 7 settled close, the same basis as the Meta Platforms figures above. So, what’s going on with Meta in particular?

AI Spending and Ad Growth Drive the Story

The purchase landed weeks after Meta Platforms reported a mixed quarter. Revenue beat Wall Street estimates as advertising sales climbed, with both ad impressions and price per ad rising. Earnings per share missed, however, ending a streak of quarterly beats as legal charges and severance tied to a staff cut pushed costs sharply higher.

Spending is the bigger story. Capital expenditures jumped as the company built out AI infrastructure, free cash flow collapsed from the prior-year level, and management raised its full-year expense outlook. Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed the investment as a growth engine. “AI is accelerating our core business today, powering our next generation of products, and opening the door to entirely new enterprise opportunities.”

META stock’s run since the trade date suggests investors have looked past the earnings miss and focused on revenue momentum and the eventual AI payoff. The suppliers behind that expansion matter too, and we featured seven of them, from power to cooling and networking, in a free report on the AI boom beyond the chipmakers.

How Meta Compares With Other Ways to Play the Theme

For a sector read, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:XLC) is at $111.68, up 0.4%. The fund holds Meta Platforms as its largest position. That gives investors Meta exposure alongside other communication services names, cushioning the impact of any single company’s legal or spending surprises.

SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) offers a different high-profile AI bet. The recently listed company is growing AI and Starlink revenue rapidly but still reports a loss per share, and its shares have swung widely since the IPO. Meta, by contrast, pairs heavy AI spending with an established, highly profitable advertising business. SpaceX is not among Trump’s reported holdings.

The disclosure covers transactions for the filer, a spouse, or a dependent child, so the Meta Platforms purchase may reflect another person’s choice, and amounts appear only as ranges, with the filing reporting trade dates separately from public release.

What to Watch Next

Investors can watch for the gap between each trade date and its public release, and share positions in Meta Platforms should reflect the stock’s sharp run since the trade date.

Meta’s next earnings report will test whether revenue can keep pace with management’s guidance while costs keep climbing. Further legal charges or a softer ad market could weigh on margins and cash flow.

Ongoing youth-related legal trials in the U.S. remain a risk for Meta Platforms. Investors who want the theme with less single-stock exposure can track the XLC ETF alongside META stock.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.