Meta Platforms’ fourth-quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, but the corporate predicted sales in the present first quarter may not meet forecasts, sending mixed signals about how bets on pricey artificial intelligence-powered tools are paying off.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company expects first quarter revenue between $39.5 billion and $41.8 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.72 billion, in response to data compiled by LSEG.
Meta shares were flat after the market closed but rose as CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke optimistically about Meta’s AI initiatives and the corporate’s conviction that open source AI is the suitable strategy after a Chinese company launched DeepSeek open source AI, which tanked global markets.
“There’s going to be an open source standard globally,” Zuckerberg said on a conference call. “It’s essential that it’s an American standard.”
The forecast raised fresh questions on Meta’s capital spending. The corporate relies on its core social media ads business to cover the prices related to its AI ambitions and investments in “metaverse” technologies like smart glasses and augmented reality systems.
Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta plans capital expenditure of as much as $65 billion in 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while also increasing hiring for AI roles.
On Wednesday, Meta said it expected total expenses for 2025 to be within the range of $114 billion to $119 billion, up from a complete of $95 billion in 2024.
“Meta’s gangbusters Q4 results clearly show that ad revenues remain the corporate’s lifeblood. That said, the largest query heading into 2025 isn’t about today’s earnings—it’s about whether Mark Zuckerberg’s $60–65 billion AI infrastructure bet can pay off,” said Jeremy Goldman, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Family every day energetic people (DAP), a metric Meta uses to trace unique users who open any one among its apps in a day, rose about 5% from a yr earlier to three.35 billion.
Meta’s results come after Chinese startup DeepSeek’s launch of its latest AI models triggered a selloff in global tech stocks on Monday on concerns about rising AI costs within the US.
DeepSeek has said its models either match or outperform top US rivals at a fraction of the associated fee, including Meta’s own Llama models, difficult the prevailing view that scaling AI requires vast computing power and investment.
Zuckerberg said it was too early to inform how DeepSeek’s emergence globally will impact Meta’s investment and capital expenditure strategy.
But what is obvious are the teachings the brand new company could incorporate into Meta products. “There are numerous things that they’ve advances that we’ll hope to implement into our systems,” Zuckerberg said, addressing questions on DeepSeek.
The breakthrough could heighten scrutiny from investors nervous concerning the company’s heavy spending on AI, though it might also profit Meta if it successfully brings down the associated fee of constructing and supporting the models.
Meta — among the many top buyers of Nvidia’s sought-after AI chips — goals to finish the yr with over 1.3 million graphics processors (GPUs) and produce about 1 gigawatt of computing power online, Zuckerberg said on Friday in a Facebook post outlining the corporate’s 2025 spending goals.
He said this month that Meta would lay off 5% of its “lowest performers” and warned employees about more such job cuts this yr to lift performance.
Meta Platforms’ fourth-quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, but the corporate predicted sales in the present first quarter may not meet forecasts, sending mixed signals about how bets on pricey artificial intelligence-powered tools are paying off.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company expects first quarter revenue between $39.5 billion and $41.8 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.72 billion, in response to data compiled by LSEG.
Meta shares were flat after the market closed but rose as CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke optimistically about Meta’s AI initiatives and the corporate’s conviction that open source AI is the suitable strategy after a Chinese company launched DeepSeek open source AI, which tanked global markets.
“There’s going to be an open source standard globally,” Zuckerberg said on a conference call. “It’s essential that it’s an American standard.”
The forecast raised fresh questions on Meta’s capital spending. The corporate relies on its core social media ads business to cover the prices related to its AI ambitions and investments in “metaverse” technologies like smart glasses and augmented reality systems.
Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta plans capital expenditure of as much as $65 billion in 2025 to expand its AI infrastructure, while also increasing hiring for AI roles.
On Wednesday, Meta said it expected total expenses for 2025 to be within the range of $114 billion to $119 billion, up from a complete of $95 billion in 2024.
“Meta’s gangbusters Q4 results clearly show that ad revenues remain the corporate’s lifeblood. That said, the largest query heading into 2025 isn’t about today’s earnings—it’s about whether Mark Zuckerberg’s $60–65 billion AI infrastructure bet can pay off,” said Jeremy Goldman, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Family every day energetic people (DAP), a metric Meta uses to trace unique users who open any one among its apps in a day, rose about 5% from a yr earlier to three.35 billion.
Meta’s results come after Chinese startup DeepSeek’s launch of its latest AI models triggered a selloff in global tech stocks on Monday on concerns about rising AI costs within the US.
DeepSeek has said its models either match or outperform top US rivals at a fraction of the associated fee, including Meta’s own Llama models, difficult the prevailing view that scaling AI requires vast computing power and investment.
Zuckerberg said it was too early to inform how DeepSeek’s emergence globally will impact Meta’s investment and capital expenditure strategy.
But what is obvious are the teachings the brand new company could incorporate into Meta products. “There are numerous things that they’ve advances that we’ll hope to implement into our systems,” Zuckerberg said, addressing questions on DeepSeek.
The breakthrough could heighten scrutiny from investors nervous concerning the company’s heavy spending on AI, though it might also profit Meta if it successfully brings down the associated fee of constructing and supporting the models.
Meta — among the many top buyers of Nvidia’s sought-after AI chips — goals to finish the yr with over 1.3 million graphics processors (GPUs) and produce about 1 gigawatt of computing power online, Zuckerberg said on Friday in a Facebook post outlining the corporate’s 2025 spending goals.
He said this month that Meta would lay off 5% of its “lowest performers” and warned employees about more such job cuts this yr to lift performance.
