Most people reach their social apps through a phone, and the company that makes the phone writes the rules every app on it has to follow. Those rules decide what an app may track, how it can charge for things and which features the phone itself will offer for free.
That leaves the app owner exposed to choices it has no vote on. A single software update from the phone maker can change how well ads inside the app can be aimed and measured, and the advertisers paying for those ads soon notice. The phone maker sells hardware first, so it can make that change and still grow.
Comparing the two shares means looking at that relationship as well as the usual numbers. Start with who earns money from whom and which rules each one sets, then move on to margins, spending on AI, valuation and how far each price has swung.
Meta Platforms owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and makes almost all its money from ads, while Apple makes the iPhone and runs the App Store those apps come from. Meta's share price is on BloFin in two forms. You can buy Meta's METAX token, which follows the price of a Meta share, on the METAX/USDT Spot pair, or use the METAUSDT Perpetual, a leveraged contract for taking a view on that price rising or falling.
How does Meta stock differ from Apple stock?
Meta stock is a bet on advertising, while Apple stock is a bet on devices and the services sold through them. From April to June 2026, ads made up 97.6% of Meta's $60.8 billion of revenue (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Apple's revenue was $109.4 billion (source: Apple third-quarter 2026 results), and the iPhone brought in 49.6% of it (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
The two firms meet at one point that matters a lot to Meta. Its apps reach many of their users on iPhones, so Apple's rules about tracking, payments and app reviews shape what Meta can do there. Apple, for its part, loses little when Meta has a weak quarter.
That one-way link is why the pair is worth a close look. A change Apple makes for privacy or for its own business can show up in Meta's ad revenue, while news from Meta rarely touches Apple's results. When you own Meta, Apple's software updates belong on your watch list next to Meta's own reports.
Apple is also a different kind of peer from Amazon, another big ad seller, which also rents out cloud computing. Amazon competes with Meta for ad budgets, while Apple makes the iPhone, where people also see those ads.
Meta's Muse Spark Open model on Apple's Mac Studio
On October 15, 2026, Meta released Muse Spark Open, an AI model whose files anyone can download, and built it to run on two Apple Mac Studio computers. The model has 816 billion parameters, of which 42 billion are active for each piece of text (source: Meta AI on Muse Spark Open).
Meta tuned it for Apple's chips and for Apple's MLX machine learning software, which runs AI models on a Mac. Parameters are the numbers a model learns during training, and a model this size needs a lot of memory to run. Meta says each Mac Studio with Apple's M5 Ultra chip lets its graphics processor use up to 512 GB of memory. Two machines together hold about 1,024 GB, enough for the whole model on a desk without a data center. The license allows only limited commercial use (source: Meta AI on Muse Spark Open).
The release is the newest sign that the two rivals now work together where it suits both of them. Meta gets a showcase for its open model, and Apple gets a reason for developers to buy Mac Studios with the most memory. It came six weeks after John Ternus took over as Apple's chief executive on September 1, 2026, when Tim Cook became executive chairman (source: Apple on Ternus becoming CEO).
For a Meta holder the deal is small in money and bigger as a sign. A free download earns Meta nothing directly, and the consumer side of Meta's Muse AI is a separate product from this open model. What it shows is a working tie with the company that controls the iPhone, a tie that has been tense since 2021.
Apple's tracking rules and Meta's ad revenue
Apple's App Tracking Transparency rule makes iPhone apps ask the user's permission before tracking them. It has applied to all apps since April 26, 2021 (source: Apple Developer on App Tracking Transparency). On February 2, 2022, Meta's finance chief said the iOS changes would cost about $10 billion of revenue that year (source: Meta Q4 2021 call transcript). The next day Meta's shares closed 26.4% lower.
That day's fall is the largest one-day drop in Meta's record over the past five years (source: Yahoo Finance META history). The tracking estimate was one of several pieces of news in that report, so the fall cannot be pinned on Apple's tracking rule alone.
The rule is still changing, now under pressure from regulators. On August 17, 2026, Germany's competition authority made binding Apple's promise to treat its own apps and other companies' apps more alike when asking for tracking consent (source: Bundeskartellamt).
Meta's annual report names Apple directly. It says Apple released iOS changes that limit Meta's ability to target and measure ads "while expanding their own advertising business" (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025). The same filing notes that Apple and Google have built their own competing products into iOS and Android, so Meta depends on two companies that are also its rivals.
App Store rules, commissions and age checks
Apple takes a commission on digital goods and services sold inside apps on its App Store, and courts are now deciding how far that charge can reach. On June 30, 2026, the US Supreme Court agreed to review the civil contempt standard in Apple's Epic Games dispute over links to pay outside an app (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
A lower court had barred Apple from charging any fee on purchases made outside an app after a customer follows a link. An appeals court then said Apple may charge some commission on those purchases, and sent the case back to set the details. Apple warns that if its commission is narrowed or removed, its results "could be materially and adversely affected" (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
For Meta this question matters less than tracking does, because Meta's apps are free and earn money from ads shown inside them. A lower App Store fee helps any app that sells digital items on iPhones. Whatever Meta charges for inside its iPhone apps falls under rules Apple writes and the courts now test.
Checks on users' ages are the newest place where the two firms' rules meet. Apple's latest quarterly filing lists new laws with "mandatory age verification requirements" among its risks (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Meta's annual report says European Union (EU) states are weighing measures that range from age checks to banning children from social media (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025). Whether the app store or each app must check a user's age decides which of the two firms pays for it.
Apple and Meta revenue and profit margins in the June quarter
Apple earned more and grew more slowly. In the three months to late June 2026 its revenue rose 16.4% to $109.4 billion, while Meta's rose 28.0% to $60.8 billion. Apple's operating margin was 32.6% and Meta's 30.9%. Apple's net income grew 27.1% to $29.8 billion while Meta's dropped 13.6% to $15.8 billion (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026) (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
Three months to late June 2026 | Meta (to June 30) | Apple (to June 27) |
|---|---|---|
Revenue | $60.8 billion | $109.4 billion |
Growth on a year earlier | 28.0% | 16.4% |
Operating margin | 30.9% | 32.6% |
Operating margin a year earlier | 43.0% (source: Meta Q2 2026 results) | 30.0% (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026) |
Net income | $15.8 billion | $29.8 billion |
Net income change on a year earlier | −13.6% | +27.1% |
Operating margin is the part of each dollar of sales that remains once the product and the running costs are paid for. Meta's fell from 43.0% to 30.9% in a year because its costs grew faster than its revenue, and those costs included $2.4 billion of legal charges and $1.2 billion of severance (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Apple's rose, and its filing credits a different mix of products and tariff refunds for the better product margin. Its 50.1% gross margin for the quarter included a lift of about 2 points from refunds of tariffs it had paid (source: Apple third-quarter 2026 results).
The mix inside Apple explains its margins. Services, which include the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music and ads, brought in $30.7 billion, or 28.1% of revenue, and kept 75.6% of each dollar as gross profit. Products kept 40.1% (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Apple's services revenue alone equaled about half of Meta's total, and you can see what sits inside that line in Apple's services business.
Meta's whole business looks more like Apple's services line than like its hardware. Both sell something that costs little to deliver once it is built. That is why Meta's gross margin, the profit after direct costs, was 81.4% in the June quarter, far above what Apple keeps on a device (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
AI strategy and capital spending at Apple and Meta
Meta builds its own AI models and the data centers to run them. Apple is building its next AI models on Google's Gemini and spends far less on buildings and servers (source: Google and Apple joint statement). In the three months to late June 2026, Meta's capital spending was 51.1% of its revenue and Apple's 2.2% (source: Meta Q2 2026 results) (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
In January 2026 Apple and Google announced a multi-year deal under which the next generation of Apple's own AI models "will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology". Apple said its AI features will keep running on its devices and on its own Private Cloud Compute servers (source: Google and Apple joint statement). Neither company gave the price.
Meta took the opposite route. Its guidance for 2026 capital spending is $130 billion to $145 billion (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Its $31.1 billion in the June quarter was about 12.7 times Apple's $2.5 billion in roughly the same months. Much of that money goes into servers and data centers for its AI work. It comes out of Meta's cash flow when it is spent, then cuts profit for years as the equipment wears out.
Capital spending | Meta | Apple |
|---|---|---|
Latest quarter | $31.1 billion | $2.5 billion |
Latest quarter, share of revenue | 51.1% | 2.2% |
Last full fiscal year | $72.2 billion | $12.7 billion |
Last full fiscal year, share of revenue | 35.9% | 3.1% |
The full-year figures are Meta's calendar 2025, including payments on finance leases, and Apple's year to September 27, 2025 (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025) (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). The gap widened in 2026: Meta raised its budget, while Apple's spending in its first nine months fell to $6.8 billion from $9.5 billion a year earlier (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
The two plans carry different risks for a holder. If AI models become cheap and widely available, Apple saved its money and can rent the best one, while Meta owns costly equipment. If the best AI goes to whoever owns the most computing power, Meta controls its own. Apple would then depend on a rival that also earns money from search on iPhones.
Market value and P/E ratios at the October 20 close
Apple was worth $5.0 trillion and Meta $1.8 trillion when US markets closed on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, so Apple was about 2.8 times Meta's size (source: Stock Analysis Apple statistics) (source: Stock Analysis Meta statistics). Buyers paid more for each dollar of Apple's profit: its trailing P/E was 39.0 against Meta's 26.2 (source: Stock Analysis Apple statistics) (source: Stock Analysis Meta statistics).
Valuation measure, October 20, 2026 | Meta | Apple |
|---|---|---|
Market capitalization | $1.8 trillion | $5.0 trillion |
Trailing P/E (past year's earnings) | 26.2 | 39.0 |
Forward P/E (forecast earnings) | 21.8 | 37.0 |
Price to sales | 7.7 | 10.6 |
Free cash flow, past twelve months | $41.0 billion (source: Stock Analysis Meta statistics) | $136.7 billion (source: Stock Analysis Apple statistics) |
The trailing P/E divides the share price by the past year's earnings per share, and the forward P/E uses analysts' forecasts for the coming year instead. Apple's two ratios sit close together, which means analysts expect its earnings to grow only modestly over the next year. Meta's forward figure is lower because those forecasts have its earnings rising faster.
Free cash flow is the cash a company keeps after paying for its buildings and equipment, and it shows the AI plans in a single figure. Stock Analysis's free cash flow figures leave out Meta's payments on finance leases. On that measure, Apple's $136.7 billion was about 3.3 times Meta's $41.0 billion over the past twelve months, even though Apple's net income was only about 1.9 times larger (source: Stock Analysis Apple statistics) (source: Stock Analysis Meta statistics). The difference is mostly Meta's data-center spending. Meta's past-year earnings also hold two one-off tax items, a non-cash charge of $15.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025 and a benefit of $8.0 billion in the first quarter of 2026 (source: Meta Q3 2025 results) (source: Meta Q1 2026 results). Without both, Meta's trailing P/E at the October 20 close was about 23.4, so look at what sits inside the earnings before leaning on Meta's P/E ratio.
Apple and Meta dividends, buybacks and share counts
Apple hands back cash mainly by buying its own shares, and Meta has paused that for now. Apple spent $62.1 billion on buybacks between late September 2025 and June 27, 2026, and its share count fell 1.1%. Meta made no buybacks from January through June 2026, while its share count grew 0.7% (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026) (source: Meta Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2026).
A falling share count gives each remaining share a slightly bigger slice of the company's profit. Shares paid to staff push the total up, so a company has to buy back some stock just to stay level. Apple did much more than that, while Meta let its count drift up and put its cash into data centers.
Apple still had about $138.0 billion of approved buybacks at June 27, 2026, after adding a new $100 billion program on April 30. Meta's unused buyback approval stood at $25.0 billion on June 30 (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026) (source: Meta Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2026).
Both pay a dividend, and the yields are almost the same. Each quarter Meta pays $0.525 a share and Apple $0.27, and Apple says it intends to raise its payment once a year. Measured against the October 20 closing prices, the yields come to 0.30% for Meta and 0.32% for Apple. Both yields are small next to the buybacks, which is why Meta's dividend is a minor part of what a holder earns.
Share price returns, drawdowns and volatility since 2021
Apple's shares have done better both this year and over five years, while Meta's have moved with much bigger swings. Through October 20, 2026, Apple gained 24.9% this year and 29.5% over twelve months, while Meta gained 5.2% this year and lost 5.2% over twelve months. Over five years Apple rose 127.5% and Meta 103.7% (source: Yahoo Finance META history) (source: Yahoo Finance AAPL history).
Price change through October 20, 2026 | Meta | Apple |
|---|---|---|
2026 so far | +5.2% | +24.9% |
Twelve months (from October 20, 2025) | −5.2% | +29.5% |
Five years (from October 20, 2021) | +103.7% | +127.5% |
Deepest peak-to-low drop in five years | −74.4% (source: Yahoo Finance META history) | −33.4% (source: Yahoo Finance AAPL history) |
Annualized volatility, past year | 42.0% (source: Yahoo Finance META history) | 24.2% (source: Yahoo Finance AAPL history) |
Days with a move of 5% or more, past year | 16 | 2 |
These figures track price alone, without dividends. Using them, $10,000 put into each share at the close on October 20, 2021 was worth about $22,746 in Apple and $20,372 in Meta five years later. The two ended close together after very different paths.
Meta lost 74.4% between November 15, 2021 and November 3, 2022 and took until December 19, 2023 to get back to its old high. Apple's worst fall was 33.4%, from December 26, 2024 to April 8, 2025, and it was back above its peak 195 days later (source: Yahoo Finance META history) (source: Yahoo Finance AAPL history).
Annualized volatility scales the typical daily move up to a full year, and the higher it is, the rougher the ride. Over the past year Meta's share was much the bumpier of the two, at 42.0% against Apple's 24.2%. The two shares also moved together less than you might expect. The correlation of their daily returns was 0.12 over the past year and 0.43 over five years (source: Yahoo Finance META history) (source: Yahoo Finance AAPL history). A reading of 1 would mean the two always move in step.
Low correlation means a bad day for one says little about the other. Apple's worst day in the past year was July 31, 2026, a fall of 7.4% the session after its results. Meta's largest one-day moves, of 11.3%, came on other dates (source: Yahoo Finance META history). A single results report has rarely moved both shares at once, and the volatility figures show that Meta's share has moved more on its own news.
Fiscal calendars and the next results dates
Apple closes its financial year on the last Saturday of September. Its fourth quarter runs from late June to late September, and its first quarter from late September to late December (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Meta uses the calendar year. Apple's June-quarter results are therefore its third quarter, while Meta calls the same months its second quarter.
The offset matters when you line the two up. Apple's fiscal 2026 fourth quarter ended on Saturday, September 26, 2026, and its holiday quarter, historically its biggest for sales, will be reported as the first quarter of fiscal 2027 (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). A headline "first quarter" from Apple and one from Meta describe different months.
Meta set its third-quarter 2026 results for after the US close on Wednesday, October 21, 2026 (source: Meta third-quarter 2026 results notice). Apple set the call on its fourth quarter for Monday, November 2, 2026, at 5PM ET (10PM UTC), 12 days after Meta's report and its first results call since Ternus became chief executive (source: Apple Investor Relations).
Apple also trades on BloFin, as the AAPLX token, a tokenized Apple share, on the AAPLX/USDT Spot market and as the AAPLUSDT Perpetual, with up to 20x leverage (source: BloFin AAPLUSDT contract details).
Both of Meta's markets let you follow the stock through the two reports. On the METAX/USDT Spot page you see each METAX trade as it happens, while the METAUSDT Perpetual page adds the current funding rate and the mark price. The mark price is the reference used for profit, loss and liquidation, and outside the Nasdaq session the perpetual may accept only orders that reduce or close a position (source: BloFin stock futures notice).
Each company's own risks and who controls it
Many of Apple's listed risks sit in courts and trade policy, while Meta's sit in its ad market and its spending. Apple's filing names Google's search payments, App Store cases, a US Justice Department lawsuit and tariffs. Meta's lists how much people use its apps, ad buyers' budgets and limits on the data its ads use (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026) (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025).
Google pays Apple licensing fees to offer its search services on Apple's devices and apps. Apple counts third-party licensing deals like this inside its advertising services, part of services revenue (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). A US court ordered remedies in Google's search antitrust case on September 2, 2025, and both the Justice Department and Google appealed. Apple warns that a reversal could bring remedies that stop Google from offering it terms for search distribution (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
The Justice Department and a group of states sued Apple on March 21, 2024, alleging it monopolized the smartphone market, and the case is still open. Most of Apple's products are made by outside partners, mainly in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). Greater China also supplied $18.8 billion of its June-quarter revenue, 22.4% more than a year earlier (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
Meta's risks run through its ad buyers, its spending plans and its own court cases, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust case, which the agency is appealing. Control is the other difference. Meta's founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, holds a majority of the voting power (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025), so outside holders cannot outvote him. Apple has one class of shares (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025) and a chief executive who took over this year.
How the two shares fit different worries
Owning Meta or Apple means choosing which side of the iPhone you hold. Apple owns the device and the store, so it earns from hardware, services and fees, with risks in courts and supply chains. Meta owns apps that run on that device, so its risks include Apple's next rule change as well as its own heavy AI spending.
If you worry most that AI spending outruns the money it brings in, Apple is the share with less of that risk. It spends little on data centers and builds its next models on Google's Gemini (source: Google and Apple joint statement). If your worry is that the iPhone's growth has peaked or that courts cut Apple's fees, Meta's ad business sits outside that problem. It still depends on people opening its apps on their phones.
Holding both is partly holding the platform and a tenant of it. A rule Apple sets for privacy can lift Apple's own ad sales and weigh on Meta's in the same quarter.
Trading on the METAUSDT Perpetual adds funding payments and the chance of liquidation to Meta's price swings. Higher leverage brings the liquidation price closer, which is why sizing comes first when using leverage on Meta.
Looking to trade Meta as it reports ahead of Apple? To get started, you'll need to first create a BloFin account, fund your account with cryptocurrency, and go to the METAX/USDT Spot trading page or the METAUSDT Perpetual trading page.
Frequently asked questions
Does Apple sell ads like Meta does?
Apple sells advertising through its own ad platforms and also earns ad-related money from licensing deals with other companies, which it counts inside services revenue (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). Its services sales grew in the quarter to June 27, 2026 mainly because of higher advertising and cloud sales (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Apple does not report advertising as a separate figure.
How many people work at Apple and at Meta?
Apple had about 166,000 full-time equivalent employees at the end of its 2025 financial year (source: Apple Form 10-K for fiscal 2025). Meta had 75,472 employees at June 30, 2026, about 1% fewer than a year earlier (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Set against the past twelve months of revenue, $228.3 billion at Meta and $466.8 billion at Apple, that is about $3.0 million per employee at Meta and $2.8 million at Apple (source: Stock Analysis Meta statistics) (source: Stock Analysis Apple statistics).
Which company spends more on research and development?
Meta spent $21.7 billion on research and development from April to June 2026 (source: Meta Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2026). Apple spent $11.7 billion in its three months to June 27 (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). That was 35.6% of Meta's revenue and 10.7% of Apple's, so Meta spends almost twice as much in dollars on a revenue base about half the size.
What share of Apple's sales comes from Greater China?
Greater China supplied 17.2% of Apple's revenue in the three months to June 27, 2026 (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Several of Meta's products are not generally available in China, though it gets meaningful revenue through a few resellers that serve advertisers based in China (source: Meta Form 10-K for 2025).
How much cash did Apple and Meta return to shareholders last quarter?
Apple bought back $25.8 billion of its stock and paid $4.0 billion of dividends in the three months to June 27, 2026, a total of $29.8 billion (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026). Meta paid $1.4 billion of dividends from April to June 2026 and bought back no stock (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Apple also prepaid $10.0 billion to banks in May 2026 under accelerated buyback deals whose purchase periods ended in its fourth quarter (source: Apple Form 10-Q for the quarter to June 27, 2026).
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. All facts independently verified. Primary sources include Meta's second-quarter 2026 results, its third-quarter 2025 and first-quarter 2026 results, its 10-Q, its 2025 annual report and its third-quarter results notice, Meta's Muse Spark Open announcement and its fourth-quarter 2021 call. They also include Apple's third-quarter 2026 results, its 10-Q for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 and its fiscal 2025 annual report. Other sources are Apple Developer news on App Tracking Transparency, Apple's leadership announcement and investor relations calendar, the Google and Apple joint statement, the Bundeskartellamt, BloFin's AAPLUSDT contract details and stock futures notice, Stock Analysis and Yahoo Finance price history, current as of October 21, 2026.
Nothing in this article constitutes financial advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold Meta or Apple in any form. Meta's share fell 74.4% from its 2021 peak and lost 26.4% in one day after a results report that included a warning about Apple's tracking change. A new Apple privacy rule could hit Meta's ad revenue again with little notice. METAX follows Meta's share price, and a leveraged METAUSDT Perpetual position can lose its whole margin when Meta reports. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do your own research and consider your risk tolerance before you trade on BloFin.