We recently published a list of 11 Best Augmented Reality Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against other best augmented reality stocks to buy according to hedge funds.

According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the global AR market is anticipated to grow at a notable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.36% between 2024 and 2029, reaching $248.38 billion by the end of the forecast period. It currently has a market size of $42.48 billion as of 2024. While the largest market for the industry is North America, the Asia Pacific region is anticipated to be the fastest growing.

The report also highlighted that a significant portion of this market is mobile AR, which leverages the globally spread use of smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices. Some estimates show that nearly 1.7 billion devices can support mobile AR as of 2024. Therefore, the massive and globally spread smartphone user base gives the AR industry a key competitive advantage.

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Trends in the Augmented Reality Space

The Immersive Entertainment—Global Strategic Business Report 2024 showed that the global market for Immersive Entertainment was $133.6 billion in 2024. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.5% between 2024 and 2030, reaching $473.9 billion at the end of the forecast period. Thus, the global AR market is also likely to benefit from the expansion of the immersive entertainment industry.

The AR market is yet to reach the apex of its potential, and experts estimate that it will do so in about a decade. Many technological advancements in the industry support this growth, as tech giants have been scrambling to attain the AR and mixed reality dream for years. Investments worth billions of dollars have been directed to the cause. According to SkyQuest, the largest investment is being poured into training and industrial maintenance, with figures reaching as much as $4.1 billion in the field of AR. Apart from this, private firms, VCs, and even some governments are financing AR research institutes and teams.

The augmented reality industry has a primary user base comprising healthcare, aerospace and defense, consumer, and retail. In addition, the technology is being increasingly used in the automotive industry. Since autonomous vehicles are becoming a rising trend across the globe, the integration of AR in these vehicles is supporting the broader AR industry. AR technology helps improve the driver and the autonomous system’s comprehension of their environment by overlaying digital data in the real world. In addition to several other features, consumers can interact with virtual 3D models of vehicles with the help of AR technology in showrooms, allowing them to visualize several customizations.

Another key growth driver for the industry is the use of AR in hospitals and medical startups. The healthcare sector continuously uses immersive modalities to streamline its processes, as surgeons are increasingly leveraging AR to deal with the potential risks of healthcare procedures. AR is helping healthcare professionals reduce the rate of errors and the number of potentially unsafe surgeries. According to SkyQuest, the AR segment in the healthcare industry was expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2024.

With these positive future trends for the AR industry in view, let’s look at the 11 best augmented reality stocks to buy according to hedge funds.

Our Methodology

We sifted through stock screeners, financial media reports, and ETFs to compile a list of 25 stocks operating in the AR space and chose the top 11 with the highest number of hedge fund holders as of Q4 2024. We sourced the hedge fund sentiment data from Insider Monkey’s database. The list is ordered in ascending order of hedge fund sentiment. Our focus was on companies producing AR-related hardware, software, or technologies used to develop augmented reality products. However, we also included companies that offer services essential to the AR industry, like semiconductor chips.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 363.5% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 208 percentage points (see more details here).

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 262

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) builds technological products that allow people to share, connect, grow businesses, and find communities. These products help people connect through personal computers, mobile devices, virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) headsets, and wearables. The company has made significant progress toward AR and VR technologies. Reality Labs, Meta Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) division dedicated to AR and VR innovations, is known for its substantial financial investments in these emerging consumer platforms.

For instance, its augmented reality prototype Orion is one of the most advanced pairs of AR glasses ever made. It integrates the appearance of a regular pair of glasses with the immersive capabilities of AR, presenting the real world as a canvas through large holographic displays. Users can place 3D and 2D experiences and content anywhere, and integrate contextual AI that can sense and understand the world around them to address their needs.

In a report released on April 29, Brent Thill from Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on Meta Inc. (NASDAQ:META), with a price target of $600.00. William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart also maintained their bullish stance on the company, giving a Buy rating on April 28. The analyst said that the company’s strategic initiatives and recent advancements in AI make it an attractive investment.

The company’s launch of a standalone AI app on iOS and Android platforms is a pivotal move, as it integrates AI offerings and allows its users to access their existing Meta accounts for enriched data access. The analyst opined that introducing an API for its LLM is anticipated to bring developers greater ease of use and flexibility. In addition, Meta Inc.’s (NASDAQ:META) adoption of a ‘mixture-of-experts’ approach in Llama 4 aims to reduce expenses and optimize computational efficiency, lending the company a competitive place in the AI landscape and supporting the buy rating.

Overall, META ranks 2nd on our list of best augmented reality stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential for META as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.