Meta posted over $64 billion in revenue in its third-quarter earnings Wednesday, announcing a two-to-one stock split that allows CEO Mark Zuckerberg to maintain control of the company as it expands its artificial intelligence business.
Meta reported earnings after the bell Wednesday.
Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images
Key Facts
- Meta reported $64.6 billion in revenue for the third quarter, a 26% increase year-over-year that comes in above forecasts from analysts.
- Net income jumped to $9.8 billion, or $3.83 per share, compared to $2.7 billion one year ago (net income was low in that quarter due to a nearly $16 billion one-time tax charge from President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill).
- The stock split provides each owner of Class A Meta shares with a non-voting Class C share.
- Capital expenditures totaled $34.9 billion in Meta’s third quarter, with the company anticipating capex for the full year to be in the range of $135 to 145 billion, narrowed from its prior outlook of $130 to 145 billion.
- Meta’s stock rose over 3% after earnings to $723
Tangent
Meta was ordered to pay $25 billion to New Mexico following a Wednesday ruling in which a jury found the company misled consumers about their data privacy.
What to watch for
Meta expects fourth quarter revenue between $73 billion and $76 billion. It also forecasts full year expenses to reach between $175 billion and $179 billion after incorporating about half of the roughly $18 billion settlement it made with dozens of state attorneys generals to resolve lawsuits over teen social media addiction.
Forbes Valuation
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is worth an estimated $241.2 billion, according to Forbes estimates, rising $3 billion as of Wednesday afternoon.
Key Background
Meta’s third quarter earnings follow the release of its artificial intelligence agent, Muse, which reached the top of the U.S. App Store in September after recording more than 10 million downloads in 40 days. Zuckerberg characterized Muse’s success as one of multiple “major milestones.” Zuckerberg said in Wednesday’s earnings call the company expects Muse to be “highly profitable,” forecasting billions of users and predicting the AI agent’s compute cost efficiency to improve tenfold in the next year.
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