The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that in just two weeks, Meta has transformed from a market afterthought to a hot stock, as investors respond to its artificial intelligence plans. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that the shares are up about 17 per cent in July, making them the third-best performer in the S&P 500 index, putting them on track for their best month since May, 2025, and adding almost $250-billion (U.S.) to the company's market capitalization. Meta's stock has improved significantly since June, when it dropped 11 per cent, making it one of the weakest in the S&P 500. While it's flat for the year, that's better than the 15-per-cent loss in the first half. The rally got started on July 1 when Bloomberg reported that Meta was developing plans for a cloud-computing business, which sent the stock up 8.8 per cent that day. Last week, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said Meta is considering renting some of its AI infrastructure to outsiders, given the high demand for computing capacity. Meta also recently unveiled a new version of its AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, that includes a new paid tier for developers, the first time Meta has charged businesses to access its models.