Meta is significantly increasing its investment in artificial intelligence even as its shares come under pressure, while the company continues to report strong earnings growth driven by its core advertising business.
The company now expects capital expenditures for the current year to range between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from a previous forecast of $115 billion to $135 billion issued just three months earlier. The revised outlook is supported by sustained growth in digital advertising revenue.
In 2025 alone, Meta spent around $72 billion, much of it directed toward expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure and building out large-scale data centres designed to support its AI ambitions.
Advertising Growth Continues to Drive Revenue
Meta’s aggressive AI expansion is being financed primarily through its highly profitable advertising operations. The company reported that total revenue in the latest quarter rose by roughly one-third year-on-year to $56.3 billion.
Net profit jumped by 61% to approximately $26.8 billion, a figure that also includes an $8 billion tax benefit recorded in the first quarter.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is seeking to position Meta ahead of major competitors in the AI race, including OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, Google, and Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI.
To achieve this, Zuckerberg is committing billions of dollars to infrastructure expansion, even at the risk of overbuilding data centre capacity.
User Numbers Decline Amid Global Restrictions
Meta reported that at least 3.56 billion people used one or more of its platforms during the latest period, down from 3.58 billion three months earlier.
The company attributed the decline to internet restrictions in Iran and limitations placed on WhatsApp in Russia, which affected platform access in those regions.
Meta’s ecosystem continues to include Instagram, the photo and video-sharing platform, as well as Threads, its competitor to X (formerly Twitter), owned by Elon Musk.
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