Meta, the world’s most massive social-media company, keeps scarfing down more digital ad dollars — and it’s planning to plow billions more into AI initiatives this year, betting that will propel future growth.
The company blew past Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter of 2025. Meta reported revenue of $59.89 billion (up 24%) and net income of $22.77 billion (up 9%), both quarterly records. Earnings came to $8.88 per diluted share for the year-end quarter.
Meta expects to capital spending in 2026 to be in the range of $115 billion-$135 billion, with “year-over-year growth driven by increased investment to support our Meta Superintelligence Labs efforts and core business,” CFO Susan Li said in the earnings announcement. That’s up substantially over $72.2 billion in 2025. Even with the “meaningful” increase in infrastructure investment, in 2026 “we expect to deliver operating income that is above 2025 operating income,” according to Li.
Meta is boosting its AI investments as it seeks to compete with the likes of Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and other heavyweights in the space. As part of its AI buildout efforts, the company on Tuesday announced a multiyear deal of up to $6 billion with Corning to supply fiber-optic cables for its data centers.
“We had strong business performance in 2025,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder, chairman and CEO, said in announcing the results Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to advancing personal superintelligence for people around the world in 2026.”
On the earnings call, Zuckerberg said he expects AI systems to be able to “understand people’s unique personal goals” and tailor their social feeds accordingly.
The company expects first quarter 2026 total revenue to be $53.5 billion-$56.5 billion (above analyst estimates of $51.4 billion). For Q4, Wall Street analysts on average expected Meta to post revenue of $58.35 billion estimated and earnings per share of $8.21, per LSEG Data & Analytics.
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said daily active users across all of its apps averaged 3.58 billion in December 2025, up slightly from 3.54 billion three months prior.
Earlier this month, Meta’s money-losing Reality Labs laid off 1,500 employees, about 10% of the unit’s headcount, as the company pivots away from developing “metaverse” and VR products and experiences and invests more into AI-powered smart glasses. For the full year 2025, Reality Labs had $2.21 billion in revenue and an operating loss of $19.2 billion; Li said Meta expects Reality Labs’ operating losses for 2026 to remain “similar to 2025 levels.”
As of the end of 2025, Meta had 78,865 employees, up 6% year over year.
Regarding pending litigation against Meta on “youth-related issues,” Li noted that the company is facing several trials this year in the U.S., which “may ultimately result in a material loss.” Among those is a case in California Superior Court in L.A. in which a woman sued Meta, YouTube, Snap and TikTok, alleging she became addicted to their services as a child and suffered emotional and physical harms. (Snap and TikTok both reached settlements before trial.)
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