Meta posts an earnings and revenue beat — and a huge capex bill
The social media giant reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.
Meta reported earnings Wednesday that beat expectations:
Earnings per share were $10.44, versus analysts’ expected $6.67. That’s partly thanks to a tax benefit, without which it would have been $3.13 lower (still a beat at $7.31).
Revenue came in at $56.3 billion, compared with the $55.557 billion FactSet analyst consensus forecast.
Despite the beat, the stock sank more than 6% after-hours after Meta said its capital expenditure for 2026 would be between $125 billion and 145 billion, compared with analysts’ $122.6 billion (and higher than the $115 billion to $135 billion it estimated last quarter). “This reflects our expectations for higher component pricing this year and, to a lesser extent, additional data center costs to support future year capacity,” the company said.
Analysts and Meta itself had been expecting more than 30% year-over-year growth in quarterly revenue, which would mark the company’s fastest expansion since 2021, driven in part by AI-powered targeting improvements. The company’s all-important ads business jumped 33% in that time to $55 billion in revenue.
On the earnings call, investors will be looking for reassurance that the massive AI spend is translating into more ad revenue. They’ll also be listening for signs of new AI-driven revenue streams beyond advertising — especially after China blocked its acquisition of AI agent startup Manus earlier this week, from which Meta had hoped to secure business subscription revenue.
Updates on Meta’s latest AI models — including the recently released Muse Spark, which some analysts see as a potential growth driver — will also be in focus.
