Meta is up more than 9% after-hours after the social media and AI behemoth beat second-quarter analyst expectations by a long shot. After market close Wednesday, it posted:
Earnings per share of $7.14, versus the FactSet analyst consensus estimate of $5.88;
Revenue of $47.516 billion, compared to the Street’s $44.806 billion forecast;
And advertising revenue of $46.563 billion, more than the $43.999 billion expected.
Meta has been on a spending spree as it tries to make itself an AI leader and achieve artificial general intelligence, partly through establishing a “superintelligence team” out of AI experts poached from competitors. Meta now expects 2025 capital expenditures to be between $66 billion and $72 billion, narrowed and slightly higher than its prior outlook of $64 billion to $72 billion, and up approximately $30 billion year over year at the midpoint.
It spent $16.5 billion on purchases of property and equipment last quarter ($17 billion including principal payments on finance leases) — slightly more than analysts expected.
Next year will be a big one for spending, too.
“While the infrastructure planning process remains highly dynamic, we currently expect another year of similarly significant capital expenditures dollar growth in 2026 as we continue aggressively pursuing opportunities to bring additional capacity online to meet the needs of our artificial intelligence efforts and business operations,” Meta said in its earnings release.
Analysts at Citizens pegged the number at $91 billion for 2026.
Investors have been hoping that AI will bolster the company’s already huge advertising business and help mitigate the spending. That looks to be the case as ad revenue grew 21% year on year. Meanwhile, Meta’s net income grew 36% to $18.337 billion.
