Meta has now reported its Q4 2025 earnings, and while the headline numbers drew attention, the bigger story goes beyond revenue and profit.
As expected, the company outlined massive ongoing investment in AI, alongside billions of dollars generated from its core advertising business. But the earnings call wasn’t just a financial recap. It also offered clues about where Meta is headed next — from how aggressively it plans to spend on AI infrastructure to how those investments could shape future products and experiences.
Earnings calls are designed primarily for investors, but they often reveal much more than balance sheets. Meta’s discussion touched on AI strategy, infrastructure priorities, and longer-term bets that could influence everything from how ads work to how users interact with Meta’s apps and devices.
That’s where Tom’s Guide comes in. We dig through the investor-focused language and pull out what actually matters for tech enthusiasts — explaining what Meta’s latest results say about the future of its AI tools, platforms, and products, and why those decisions could affect you.
Meta Earnings Numbers at a glance
- Earnings per share (EPS) of $8.88, up from $8.02 per share in Q4 2024
- Revenue of $59.8 billion, up from $48.4 billion in Q4 2024
- $35.1 billion in expenses, up from $25 billion in Q4 2024
When is the Meta Q4 2025 earnings call?
Meta will stream its earnings call live at 4:40 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT).
How to listen live
While we're here to live blog the earnings calls with the latest information as it emerges, you might want to listen for yourself (if you're a shareholder in Meta, you almost certainly want to hear what's going on. Here's the link to listen as Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the executives report what happened in the most recent quarter:
Meta Q4 2025 earnings live webcast
Meta Q4 earnings call — live updates
Meta's stock is down
Meta's last earnings call was in October 2025 where the company reported its Q3 income and expenses. Apparently, Wall Street didn't like what it heard, as the company's stock is down 12% overall since then.
According to the latest reports, investors have raised concerns about the social media giant’s massive amount of spending. Essentially, Meta is spending a lot of money, and the company said it expects 2026 capital expenditure growth to be “notably larger," which means it plans to spend even more.
Meta's most exciting department is bleeding cash
If you're just a fan of cool technology (which most of us are), you're probably excited about Meta’s Reality Labs division. It's where the cool AR tech is being developed. It's also where Meta is losing an absurd amount of money in the short term. In fact, it is expected to bring in only $959 million in revenue for the quarter while losing a staggering $5.9 billion.
Does that mean we should temper our excitement over this new tech? Perhaps not, as Meta is seemingly playing the long game and banking on this technology becoming massive in the future; otherwise, the company wouldn't spend so much on its researchers, developers, and engineers working to build the future of virtual and augmented reality.
Where does Meta make money?
At this point, most of Meta's earnings come from digital advertising. Yet Apple just invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI in June and brought over CEO Alexandr Wang and other top talent from the company.
But Meta is spending billions (between $70 billion and $72 billion) on AI and other areas that don't generate revenue.
“We’re seeing the returns in the core business that’s giving us a lot of confidence that we should be investing a lot more, and we want to make sure that we’re not underinvesting,” he said.
The company sees AI, AR and VR as the future, and it might just be sacrificing money now to make that future a reality.
Meta explores premium subscriptions across its apps
Meta Platforms says it’s exploring optional premium subscription tiers for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, while keeping the core experience free. The paid options would focus on exclusive features, added controls and expanded AI tools, rather than replacing ad-supported access.
The move signals Meta’s continued interest in diversifying revenue beyond ads, particularly as it ramps up spending on AI and infrastructure.
AI costs are quietly shaping Meta’s subscription strategy
Meta is positioning potential subscriptions around added features and control, but the real pressure point may be AI economics. Training, deploying and running large-scale AI systems — from generative tools to recommendation engines — is capital-intensive, requiring massive investments in data centers, chips and ongoing compute.
Advertising still funds the bulk of Meta’s business, but AI changes the math. As more AI features move from experiments into everyday products, the cost of serving each user rises. Optional subscriptions would give Meta a way to recover some of those costs directly, without locking core social experiences behind a paywall.
In that sense, subscriptions wouldn’t replace ads — they’d act as a pressure valve, helping Meta fund AI expansion while keeping Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp largely free for most users.
AI strategy and earnings: what Meta’s spending means for users
When Meta talks about AI on its earnings call later today, we will learn more about how Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp evolve. The company is spending heavily on AI infrastructure to power smarter feeds, generative tools, assistants and automation across its apps.
That investment is already shaping product decisions. Meta has been building more of its AI in-house, developing proprietary models meant to run recommendations, creative tools and new AI features users interact with every day.
But AI doesn’t come cheap. As costs rise, Meta is under pressure to find ways to pay for those features — which helps explain why the company is exploring optional subscriptions and paid upgrades, alongside ads.
At the same time, Meta has pulled back and adjusted some AI features, like pausing teen access to AI characters, as concerns around safety and oversight grow.
For users, the takeaway is that Meta’s AI push is accelerating, but how it gets funded — and who gets access to what — is still very much in flux.
Meta’s in-house AI models arrive — and what that signals
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs — a new internal AI team — has delivered its first high-profile AI models internally, according to CTO Andrew Bosworth in an exclusive interview with Reuters. He described the work as promising even at this early stage, with ongoing efforts to refine and adapt those models into usable technologies inside Meta’s ecosystem.
Building foundational AI capabilities in-house gives Meta more control over future innovation — potentially powering smarter recommendations, generative tools, and other advanced features down the line — but the company has stopped short of outlining specific product launches or timelines tied to these models.
Analysts see this as part of a broader strategy to regain footing in the competitive AI landscape while investing in long-term tech leadership.
At the same time, Meta has recently paused teen access to its AI characters globally amid safety and oversight concerns — a reminder that as new AI tools roll out, Meta still faces scrutiny over content moderation and user protection.
What analysts — and users — are watching on Meta’s earnings call
As Meta reports earnings, a few key themes are expected to dominate the conversation. Here’s what matters most — and why it’s worth paying attention even if you’re not an investor.
- Advertising strength vs. rising AI costs. Ads are still Meta’s bread and butter. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads all rely on ad revenue, with AI-powered targeting and recommendations increasingly driving performance. But that growth is now competing with the reality that AI is expensive to run, and those costs are rising fast.
- CapEx and 2026 spending plans. One of the biggest questions on the call will be how much Meta plans to spend next year — especially on AI data centers, chips and infrastructure. Analysts expect updated guidance for 2026, with projected spending in the $109B–$117B range. That number will shape how Wall Street views Meta’s margins and long-term cash flow.
- Are Meta’s AI investments paying off yet? Meta has poured billions into AI, but investors want evidence that those investments are starting to translate into real returns — whether that’s smarter ads, better engagement, new paid features or efficiency gains. The balance between progress and pressure will be closely scrutinized.
- Reality Labs: still a drag, still a bet. While AI is the headline story, Meta’s Reality Labs division — home to VR, AR and metaverse projects — continues to lose money. Any updates on losses, timelines or strategic shifts here could influence confidence in Meta’s longer-term bets.
- Engagement and new monetization signals. Finally, analysts will be listening for signals around user engagement and future revenue streams. That includes updates on Threads, experiments with subscriptions, and how AI-enabled features might eventually turn into new ways for Meta to make money.
Advertising is still Meta’s engine — but AI is changing the math
Advertising remains the backbone of Meta’s business, powering Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. AI-driven targeting and recommendations have helped boost performance, keeping ad revenue resilient even as the digital ad market tightens.
The challenge is cost. Running large-scale AI systems isn’t cheap, and those expenses are climbing fast. On today’s earnings call, analysts will be listening for how Meta balances ad growth with the rising cost of AI infrastructure behind the scenes.
CapEx watch: Meta’s 2026 spending plans loom large
One of the biggest questions heading into Meta’s earnings call is how much the company plans to spend next year. Analysts expect updated guidance on 2026 capital expenditures, particularly for AI data centers, chips and computing infrastructure.
Current projections range from roughly $109B to $117B, and even small changes to that outlook could influence how Wall Street views Meta’s margins, cash flow and long-term discipline.
Meta reiterates where its official earnings news actually appears
In its earnings announcement, Meta Platforms reiterated the official channels it uses for material disclosures under Regulation FD, which governs how public companies share market-moving information.
According to Meta, investors and the public should look to the following sources for official earnings results, press releases, and regulatory updates:
- investor.atmeta.com — Meta’s Investor Relations site, where earnings releases, prepared remarks, financial tables, and webcasts are posted
- meta.com/news — the company’s corporate newsroom for major announcements
- Mark Zuckerberg’s public social profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, which Meta treats as recognized disclosure channels
This matters because information released through these platforms is considered official company communication, not speculation or leaks.
If earnings details, guidance or strategic updates appear elsewhere first, they shouldn’t be treated as confirmed unless they’re echoed through one of Meta’s designated channels.
Meta’s smart glasses plan isn’t about a single device
Meta Platforms isn’t betting on a single “killer” pair of smart glasses — and that’s intentional. Instead of rushing straight to full augmented reality, Meta is rolling out a multi-stage hardware strategy built around three distinct categories: audio AI glasses, display AI glasses, and eventually full AR.
The goal is gradual adoption. Audio-first glasses introduce AI assistance without changing how people use eyewear. Display AI glasses add lightweight visual information without overwhelming users. Full AR only comes later, once the technology is slim, socially acceptable, and genuinely useful for everyday life.
In other words, Meta is trying to normalize smart glasses before making them futuristic. Rather than asking users to strap a full AR computer to their face all day, the company is easing people in — feature by feature, year by year — until wearing AI-powered glasses feels as natural as wearing earbuds or a smartwatch.
This staged approach also gives Meta room to refine the technology, build habits, and test what people actually want from AI on their face — before committing to the most ambitious version of augmented reality.
Why Meta isn’t jumping straight to full AR
For all of its ambition in AR, Meta Platforms has been unusually cautious about pushing full AR glasses to consumers — and that’s by design.
True AR glasses still face hard constraints: they’re bulky, power-hungry, expensive to manufacture, and difficult to wear comfortably for long stretches. Add in battery life, heat, and social acceptance, and the technology simply isn’t ready for everyday use at scale.
Rather than force an early version onto users, Meta is taking a step-by-step approach. Display AI glasses let the company introduce visual computing in a limited, practical way, while continuing to refine the hardware and software needed for full AR behind the scenes.
This also gives Meta time to answer a bigger question: what do people actually want on their face all day? By watching how users interact with small displays — when they glance, what they ignore, and what they find helpful — Meta can shape future AR experiences around real behavior, not demos.
Full AR is still the goal. But for now, Meta is betting that earning trust and habit first matters more than shipping the most advanced tech as fast as possible.
The Meta Ray-Ban display glasses explained
Released in September 2025, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses are the clearest example yet of how Meta Platforms envisions the next phase of smart eyewear. Rather than jumping straight to full augmented reality, these glasses introduce what Meta calls Display AI — a practical, scaled-back approach to putting visual information on your face.
At the core of the design is a full-color monocular display embedded in the right lens, with a resolution of 600×600 pixels. Crucially, this isn’t meant to be immersive. The display is small and glanceable, designed to surface information only when you need it, then fade back into the background.
That means you won’t see holograms, floating windows or digital worlds layered over reality. Instead, the glasses focus on everyday utilities: turn-by-turn navigation, incoming messages, quick prompts and live translation. It’s closer to a heads-up display than an AR headset — and that distinction is intentional.
Meta’s goal here is usability. By limiting the visual footprint, the company avoids many of the problems that have plagued early AR hardware, including bulkiness, distraction and social awkwardness. You can look at the display briefly, then return your attention to the real world without feeling like you’re wearing a computer on your face.
The Ray-Ban partnership also matters. By packaging this technology inside familiar, fashion-forward frames from Ray‑Ban, Meta is trying to make Display AI feel more like a normal accessory — something you’d actually wear outside your house.
In short, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses aren’t trying to replace your phone or introduce full AR..yet. They’re meant to introduce visual AI gently, setting expectations for what smart glasses can do today — and paving the way for more ambitious AR hardware down the line.
Meta’s AI team just hit a milestone — here’s why it matters
Meta Platforms has crossed an important AI milestone just ahead of its earnings call.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth said the company’s newly formed internal AI team has delivered its first key AI models this month. The work is still early, but Bosworth described the results as promising — especially given how new the team is.
According to Bosworth, the group is only about six months into the effort, yet the models are already showing capabilities Meta hadn’t previously achieved internally. That’s notable for a company that’s investing heavily in AI infrastructure, chips, and talent — and facing growing pressure to show results.
Meta hasn’t shared exactly what these models do yet or when they’ll appear in products. However, recent reporting suggests the company has been developing both text-based and multimodal AI systems — models that can understand and generate combinations of text, images, and video. For now, Meta is keeping specifics under wraps.
For everyday users, the significance signals a new direction. Meta is increasingly focused on building its own AI systems, rather than relying entirely on external partners. Over time, these internal models could power features across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta’s expanding lineup of smart glasses — from smarter recommendations to more capable AI assistants.
This update also helps explain why AI spending keeps coming up in earnings conversations. Training and running advanced AI models is expensive, but Meta appears to see this as a long-term investment in control, performance, and differentiation.
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Ahead of earnings, investors are focused on Meta’s AI spending plans
As Meta Platforms heads into its Q4 earnings report, Wall Street isn’t just focused on revenue and profit. The bigger question is how much Meta plans to spend next on AI — and whether that spending is starting to pay off.
Analysts say updated capital expenditure guidance for 2026 could end up overshadowing the rest of the earnings report, especially if Meta signals another major increase in AI-related spending. The company has already committed billions to data centers, advanced chips and the computing power needed to train and run large AI models — and those costs are putting pressure on margins and free cash flow.
This makes guidance especially important. Even if Meta delivers strong ad revenue this quarter, investors want clarity on how long the AI spending surge will last and whether it’s being managed carefully. Forecasts for 2026 capex vary widely, and small changes in Meta’s outlook could influence how the stock reacts.
The underlying tension is that AI is central to Meta’s future, but it’s expensive in the short term. Investors are listening for signs that Meta can balance aggressive AI investment with financial discipline — and that its spending is driving real efficiency, not just bigger bills.
For this earnings call, how Meta frames AI costs may matter just as much as the numbers themselves.
Advertising momentum could offset some concerns
Despite rising costs tied to AI infrastructure, Meta Platforms still has a powerful advantage heading into earnings: advertising momentum.
Analysts continue to point to Meta’s ad business as a key source of stability, especially across Facebook and Instagram, where AI-driven targeting and recommendation systems have improved performance for advertisers. Those AI tools are helping Meta deliver more relevant ads, which can translate into higher engagement and stronger pricing — even in a competitive digital ad market.
There’s also growing interest in how newer surfaces contribute. Experiments like ads on Threads are still early, but they signal Meta’s intent to monetize emerging platforms more aggressively over time. While Threads won’t move the needle overnight, it adds another potential growth lever that investors — and users — are watching closely.
AI has been a major cost center for Meta, driving up spending on data centers, chips and compute. But if AI-enhanced advertising continues to perform well, it strengthens the case that those investments are paying off — not just in future potential, but in present-day revenue.
A strong ad showing this quarter wouldn’t erase concerns about rising expenses. But it could help balance the narrative, giving Meta more room to argue that AI isn’t just expensive infrastructure — it’s becoming a meaningful growth driver across its core business.
User engagement still underpins Meta’s entire business
While AI spending and advertising dominate earnings headlines, Meta’s results still hinge on something more fundamental: how many people are using its apps — and how often.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger continue to reach billions of users globally, and analysts will be watching closely for updates on daily and monthly active users and broader engagement trends. These metrics matter because they directly support Meta’s advertising business — more engagement creates more opportunities to serve ads, test AI features, and introduce new monetization tools.
Instagram remains a particular focus, especially as Meta leans harder into Reels and AI-driven recommendations to compete with TikTok. Strong engagement here reinforces Meta’s argument that AI investments are improving core products, not just increasing costs.
WhatsApp is another longer-term wildcard. While historically light on monetization, it continues to grow, and Meta has been steadily expanding business messaging, advertising integrations, and AI tools. Any commentary on WhatsApp engagement or revenue contribution could signal future upside, even if it’s not material today.
For users, this part of the earnings call often flies under the radar — but it’s crucial. If engagement holds steady or grows, Meta has more room to experiment with AI, subscriptions, and new products. If it weakens, everything else becomes harder.
Meta retail sentiment shows nerves over capex and stock performance
On Reddit investing forums, everyday traders are openly debating what might happen next for Meta’s stock. Some are considering locking in gains before earnings, worried that another aggressive AI spending forecast could weigh on shares. Others are more cautiously optimistic but still point to rising capital expenditures as a lingering concern.
What’s driving that anxiety is memory. Many commenters are still reacting to last quarter’s surprise costs, when Meta’s stock moved sharply despite solid revenue, reminding investors that guidance — not just headline numbers — can dominate the market reaction. For newer investors in particular, the lesson seems to have stuck.
What’s striking isn’t just the uncertainty — it’s where the focus is. Rather than arguing over whether Meta will beat revenue or earnings estimates, retail traders are zeroing in on future spending plans, AI infrastructure costs, and whether Meta can show more discipline as it scales up its ambitions.
That mirrors the broader earnings narrative. Professional analysts have also flagged capex and long-term expense guidance as potential swing factors for the stock. Seeing the same concerns echoed by everyday investors highlights just how central AI spending has become to Meta’s story.
More than 3.5 billion people use Meta every day.
Meta kicked off its earnings report with a familiar theme: strong growth on the surface, paired with rising costs underneath.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, Meta Platforms reported revenue of $59.9 billion, up 24% year over year. Full-year revenue reached $201 billion, a 22% increase compared with 2024. Those gains reflect continued strength in Meta’s core advertising business across Facebook and Instagram, supported by AI-driven targeting and recommendations.
Profitability remains solid, but the picture is more mixed. Meta posted $22.8 billion in net income for the quarter and $60.5 billion for the full year. While quarterly profit rose year over year, full-year net income dipped slightly as expenses climbed.
And that’s where the tension shows up. Meta’s costs and expenses rose sharply, driven largely by infrastructure investments and staffing tied to AI development. Full-year expenses climbed to nearly $118 billion, up 24% from the prior year.
Meta is still growing fast, and its core business is healthy. But the company is also spending aggressively to build out AI and future platforms — setting up a familiar earnings storyline where strong revenue has to coexist with heavier investment.
Advertising powers Meta’s growth — and AI is doing more of the work
Advertising once again did the heavy lifting in Meta’s latest earnings report, reinforcing why the company can afford to invest so aggressively elsewhere.
In the fourth quarter, Meta Platforms saw strong momentum across its ad business, driven by both higher demand and better performance. Meta reported that ad impressions rose 18% year over year in Q4, while the average price per ad increased 6%. For the full year, ad impressions climbed 12% and pricing rose 9%.
That combination matters. More impressions mean Meta is serving ads more frequently across Facebook, Instagram, and its broader app ecosystem. Higher prices suggest advertisers are willing to pay more — often a sign that targeting and placement are improving.
AI plays a growing role here. Meta continues to rely heavily on machine learning to decide which ads users see and when they see them. Those systems have helped improve relevance, keep users engaged, and make campaigns more efficient for advertisers — even as competition for ad dollars remains fierce.
This strength helps explain why advertising remains Meta’s financial backbone. While newer monetization experiments like Threads ads are still early, the core ad engine is generating enough growth to offset rising costs tied to AI infrastructure and product development.
User growth keeps Meta’s ecosystem strong
Beyond revenue and ads, Meta’s earnings report highlights something even more foundational: people are still showing up.
For December 2025, Meta Platforms reported an average of 3.58 billion daily active people across its Family of Apps — which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. That figure represents a 7% increase year over year, underscoring the massive scale Meta continues to operate at.
This matters because user growth and engagement sit at the center of Meta’s entire business model. More daily users mean more content consumption, more interactions, and ultimately more opportunities to serve ads and introduce new features. It also gives Meta a huge testing ground for AI-powered recommendations, feeds, and tools.
Instagram remains a key driver within that ecosystem. Meta has leaned heavily on Reels and AI-driven content ranking to keep users engaged and competitive with platforms like TikTok. While Meta doesn’t always break out detailed time-spent metrics, rising ad impressions suggest users are spending more time across its apps.
WhatsApp is another important part of the picture. Although it has historically generated less revenue than Facebook or Instagram, it continues to grow globally and plays a larger role in Meta’s long-term plans around messaging, business tools, and AI-powered assistance.
The takeaway is simple: Meta’s scale remains intact. As long as engagement holds steady or grows, the company has room to experiment — whether that’s with AI, subscriptions, or entirely new products.
AI spending accelerates as Meta leans into long-term bets
Meta’s earnings report makes one thing clear: the company is spending aggressively to build its AI future.
For full-year 2025, Meta Platforms reprted capital expenditures of $72.2 billion, with a large portion tied to data centers, infrastructure, and the compute needed to train and run advanced AI models. Spending also surged in the fourth quarter alone, reflecting the scale and speed of Meta’s buildout.
Those investments are already shaping Meta’s cost structure. Total costs and expenses rose sharply year over year, driven by infrastructure growth and continued hiring in AI-related roles. While this spending puts pressure on margins in the short term, Meta is positioning it as foundational — necessary to support everything from AI-powered ads to future consumer products.
What investors are listening for now is what comes next. Meta’s guidance points to even higher spending in 2026, with projected capital expenditures rising significantly as the company expands its AI capacity. That outlook has become one of the most closely watched elements of the earnings call, sometimes carrying as much weight as revenue growth itself.
The tension is familiar: AI is expensive, but Meta believes it’s essential. The company is betting that heavy investment today will translate into better products, stronger monetization, and long-term efficiency gains — even if it makes the near-term financial picture more complicated.
Why Meta is investing so heavily in its own AI silicon
Buried inside Meta’s earnings report is a key driver behind its rising costs: custom silicon.
As part of its AI push, Meta Platforms has been investing heavily in in-house chip design, building custom silicon to power its data centers and AI workloads. The company has made it clear that off-the-shelf hardware alone won’t scale efficiently enough for its long-term ambitions.
Meta’s custom chips are designed to handle AI training and inference more efficiently than general-purpose processors. In theory, that means better performance per watt, lower long-term operating costs, and less reliance on external suppliers — all critical as AI models grow larger and more compute-hungry.
This silicon strategy helps explain why capital expenditures surged in 2025 and are expected to climb even higher in 2026. Building AI infrastructure isn’t just about adding servers; it means designing, testing, and deploying specialized hardware at massive scale. That process is expensive upfront, even if it pays off later.
For Meta, the bet is strategic control. By owning more of the hardware stack — from data centers to chips — the company can better optimize AI systems for ads, content ranking, messaging tools, and future products like smart glasses.
The risk, of course, is timing. Custom silicon takes years to mature, and the benefits don’t always show up immediately on the balance sheet.
Reality Labs remains a drag — but Meta isn’t backing off
While AI dominates Meta’s long-term narrative, Reality Labs is still very much part of the earnings picture — and it continues to lose money.
In its Q4 and full-year 2025 results, Meta Platforms reported ongoing operating losses in Reality Labs, the division responsible for virtual reality, augmented reality, and metaverse projects. Those losses have been consistent quarter after quarter, reflecting heavy investment in hardware, software, and research that has yet to generate meaningful revenue.
Meta didn’t signal any major pullback. Instead, the company continues to frame Reality Labs as a long-term bet, separate from the near-term performance of its advertising business. Products like Quest headsets and early AR research remain in development mode rather than profit drivers.
For investors, Reality Labs has become a known quantity. The surprise factor is largely gone, but the division still affects overall profitability — especially as Meta ramps up spending elsewhere, including AI infrastructure and custom silicon.
For users, Reality Labs can feel distant from the core apps they use every day. But the work happening there feeds into Meta’s broader ambitions around immersive computing, spatial interfaces, and future wearable devices.
Meta signals higher AI spending in its 2026 guidance
If there’s one section of Meta’s earnings report that could shape how the stock reacts, it’s guidance — and Meta’s outlook for 2026 is clear: spending is going up.
In its earnings release, Meta Platforms said it expects Q1 2026 revenue of $53.5–$56.5 billion, signaling continued strength in its core advertising business. But the bigger signal came on the cost side.
Meta projects total expenses of $162–$169 billion in 2026, alongside capital expenditures of $115–$135 billion.
That’s a massive investment ramp, driven largely by AI infrastructure. Meta is pouring money into data centers, custom silicon, and compute capacity to support increasingly complex AI models across ads, recommendations, messaging, and future products.
Crucially, Meta also said it expects 2026 operating income to exceed 2025 levels, despite the surge in spending. That’s an attempt to reassure investors that growth can continue even as costs rise — and that AI investments won’t completely overwhelm margins.
For readers, this guidance helps frame the bigger picture. Meta isn’t dialing back ambition or slowing its AI push. Instead, it’s asking investors to accept near-term pressure in exchange for long-term positioning.
What Meta’s earnings mean for everyday users
Meta’s latest earnings report is packed with big numbers, but the real impact will show up slowly — in the products people use every day.
The company’s heavy investment in AI, infrastructure, and custom silicon isn’t just about boosting ad performance. Over time, it’s meant to power smarter feeds, better recommendations, more capable assistants, and new features across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Meta’s growing lineup of smart glasses.
For users, that likely means more AI-driven experiences baked into apps — from improved content ranking and discovery to new creative tools and conversational features. Meta has already been rolling out AI assistants, image tools, and business messaging upgrades, and its earnings guidance suggests that pace won’t slow down in 2026.
At the same time, Meta’s willingness to keep funding long-term bets like Reality Labs and smart glasses signals that it sees the future beyond phones and traditional social feeds. Those projects may not feel relevant yet, but they shape how Meta is thinking about where people will interact with technology next.
The tradeoff is subtle. More AI can mean more convenience — but it can also mean more automation, more recommendations and less human control over what users see. Meta’s challenge will be balancing innovation with trust as it layers these systems deeper into everyday life.
The risks Meta still has to manage
Meta’s earnings paint a picture of confidence and scale, but the company’s strategy isn’t without risk — and that’s something both investors and users should keep in mind.
The most obvious pressure point is spending. Meta is committing enormous sums to AI infrastructure, custom silicon and data centers, with capital expenditures set to climb sharply in 2026. If ad growth slows or macro conditions tighten, those fixed costs could become harder to absorb.
There’s also execution risk. Building cutting-edge AI systems in-house is complex, expensive, and competitive. Meta isn’t just racing against its own timelines — it’s competing with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Amazon, all of which are investing heavily in similar infrastructure and talent.
Regulation remains another wildcard. AI-driven advertising, content recommendations and messaging tools continue to draw scrutiny from regulators in the U.S. and abroad. Any changes to privacy rules, data usage, or AI governance could affect how Meta deploys the very systems it’s investing in.
Finally, there’s the question of user trust. More automation and AI-curated experiences can improve convenience, but they also raise concerns about transparency, controland over-optimization. Meta will need to balance innovation with restraint to avoid backlash.
The key takeaways from Meta’s earnings report
Meta’s earnings report was packed with big numbers, but not everything carried equal weight.
What clearly mattered most was guidance. Revenue and profit came in strong, but attention quickly shifted to Meta’s outlook for 2026 — especially projected spending on AI infrastructure, custom silicon and data centers. Those forward-looking numbers framed how investors interpreted everything else.
Advertising performance also landed as a positive. Growth in ad impressions and pricing reinforced the idea that Meta’s core business remains healthy enough to fund its aggressive investment plans. That helped offset concerns about rising expenses, at least in the near term.
What mattered less was short-term experimentation. Early monetization efforts like Threads ads or incremental product updates didn’t meaningfully change the narrative. These initiatives are still seen as long-term options rather than immediate drivers.
Reality Labs, while still unprofitable, also failed to surprise. Losses there are now well understood and largely baked into expectations, making AI spending the bigger swing factor this quarter.
The big picture takeaway: this earnings report wasn’t about proving Meta can grow — it was about convincing investors that it can spend responsibly while building for the future. Whether the market buys that argument will depend less on last quarter’s results and more on how Meta executes from here.
Why Meta keeps stressing “operating discipline”
Even as Meta ramps up AI spending, executives are trying to reassure investors that the company isn’t returning to the unchecked spending era that rattled markets a few years ago. Headcount growth has slowed, teams have been consolidated and Meta continues to frame its investments as targeted rather than sprawling.
The message is subtle but consistent: spend heavily on AI infrastructure and silicon, but stay lean everywhere else. Whether Wall Street buys that balance remains an open question, but it’s clearly a theme Meta wants to reinforce.
Meta confirms AI is now its biggest priority
If there was any doubt before, Meta’s earnings call made it clear: AI is the company’s top priority, even above metaverse ambitions.
Executives repeatedly returned to AI infrastructure, internal model development and long-term capacity building. The scale of planned investment — especially into data centers and custom silicon — reinforces that Meta sees AI as foundational to everything it does, from ads and feeds to messaging and hardware.
Meta positioned AI as a multi-year build that will reshape its products gradually, not overnight.
Why Meta keeps emphasizing “long-term”
One notable pattern in the earnings call was how often Meta emphasized long-term thinking.
Rather than focusing narrowly on quarterly margins, executives talked about building durable systems — AI models, infrastructure and platforms — that can support growth for years. That framing helps explain why Meta is willing to tolerate near-term cost pressure in exchange for future flexibility and control.
For investors, that’s a patience test. For users, it signals steady, incremental changes rather than sudden product overhauls.
The earnings call reinforces Meta’s “quiet rollout” approach
Meta’s strategy increasingly favors quiet rollouts over big reveals.
Instead of announcing dramatic new products on earnings calls, the company appears more comfortable shipping AI features gradually across its apps — testing, refining and expanding them once they’re proven.
That approach aligns with how users are likely to experience Meta’s AI push: not as a single moment, but as a slow shift toward more automated, assistive, and AI-driven experiences across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and beyond.
Meta is slowly building revenue beyond ads
While advertising still dominates Meta’s business, the company has been laying groundwork for additional revenue streams, including subscriptions, business messaging and potential AI-powered services.
Meta Verified, WhatsApp business tools, and creator subscriptions already generate income, and AI features could eventually expand that mix. Rather than replacing ads, Meta appears to be testing optional paid layers — a strategy that could help offset rising AI costs without fundamentally changing how its apps work for most users. Although Mark could not share must more.
Zuckerberg: video isn’t the endgame — more immersive formats are coming
During the earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg returned to an idea he’s talked about for years: video is foundational, but it’s not the final format.
Zuckerberg said video has been one of Meta’s core strategic bets for a long time, helping drive engagement across Facebook and Instagram. But he framed video as a stepping stone, not a destination. In his view, feeds are likely to evolve toward more interactive and immersive formats over time.
That’s an important signal. It suggests Meta doesn’t see the future of feeds as endless scrolling through passive video — even short-form video like Reels. Instead, the company appears to be thinking about experiences that let users participate, respond, and interact more directly with content.
While Zuckerberg didn’t spell out specific products, the direction aligns closely with Meta’s broader investments in AI and spatial computing. More immersive formats could include AI-generated experiences, interactive media, or content that adapts in real time based on how users engage with it.
Meta is pushing organic recommendations to become more adaptive — in real time
Meta also shared more detail on where organic content recommendations are headed — and the focus is on making feeds respond faster and more intelligently within a single session.
Instead of relying only on longer-term signals like past likes or follows, Meta says it’s working to make recommendations more adaptive to what a user is engaging with in the moment. That means the content you see could shift dynamically based on what you watch, skip, linger on, or interact with during a single session.
To do that, Meta plans to incorporate large language models (LLMs) more deeply into its recommendation systems. These models can help Meta better understand not just surface-level signals, but the meaning and context of content itself — including themes, intent, and how different pieces of content relate to one another.
The goal is sharper personalization without requiring users to explicitly tell the app what they want. Instead, feeds would learn continuously as users browse, making recommendations feel more relevant and less repetitive.
This fits directly with Meta’s broader AI push. Better content understanding improves engagement, keeps users active longer, and strengthens the ad ecosystem — all while laying groundwork for more interactive and immersive formats in the future.
Meta: owning the AI stack is a strategic necessity
Meta also addressed why it’s so focused on building its own AI systems — and the answer was blunt: control.
Mark emphasized that Meta wants to build and control the underlying technology so it can design the exact experiences it wants to deliver. The company’s view is that frontier AI won’t always be something you can simply access through a shared API. If you want to shape how products behave at massive scale, you need deeper ownership of the technology itself.
Meta framed this as a fundamental requirement for companies operating at its size. Relying entirely on third-party AI limits how precisely you can design responses, experiences, and interactions — especially as products become more personalized, immersive, and adaptive.
That philosophy helps explain Meta’s aggressive investment in internal AI models, infrastructure, and silicon. It’s not just about cost efficiency or performance. It’s about having the ability to build the experience you want, rather than adapting your products to someone else’s AI system.
The company also tied this back to users. By controlling more of the stack, Meta believes it can better design the structures that allow people to enjoy the kinds of experiences they already gravitate toward — whether that’s content discovery, messaging, or emerging immersive formats.
Meta is pushing toward deep personalization
Meta also said its AI assistant is now available in more than 200 markets, marking a major step in its global rollout. But reach isn’t the only goal. The company emphasized that it wants Meta AI to become the most personalized assistant possible, tailoring responses to each person’s preferences, interests, and context.
Rather than offering one-size-fits-all answers, Meta’s aim is to adapt how the assistant responds based on how individuals use its apps — what they engage with, how they communicate, and the kinds of tasks they regularly try to accomplish.
The company described Meta AI as a tool designed to help people do more, not just ask questions. That includes assisting with planning, creation, discovery, and everyday decision-making inside Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and future devices.
This focus on personalization helps explain Meta’s broader AI strategy. Delivering customized responses at scale requires deep integration with recommendation systems, content understanding, and user context — all areas where Meta is investing heavily in its own AI models and infrastructure.
For users, this means Meta AI is likely to feel less generic over time and more attuned to individual needs. For Meta, personalization is the differentiator that could turn AI from a feature into a core part of its platforms.
