Meta Crushes Wall Street Earnings Estimates As It Ramps Up AI Spending

Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, handily beat Wall Street estimates in its third-quarter earnings, delivering revenue of $40.6 billion, net income of $15.7 billion and earnings per share of $6.03, all up substantially from 2023.

The Street had been targeting revenue of $40.3 billion and EPS of $5.25.

However, the company also reiterated that it expects to grow its spending over the next year as it leans into artificial intelligence, warning investors that “given this, along with the back-end weighted nature of our 2024 capital expenditures, we expect a significant acceleration in infrastructure expense growth next year as we recognize higher growth in depreciation and operating expenses of our expanded infrastructure fleet.”

The company also warned that regulatory efforts in the U.S. and E.U. “could significantly impact our business and our financial results.”

“We had a good quarter driven by AI progress across our apps and business,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO. “We also have strong momentum with Meta AI, Llama adoption, and AI-powered glasses.”