Meta wows Wall Street despite spending billions on AI and facing social media addiction trial
As Meta spends billions on artificial intelligence data centers and its CEO prepares to testify in a landmark social media trial, the company is earning a pretty penny.Meta reported strong financial results on Wednesday, beating Wall Street expectations of $58.59bn with $59.89bn in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025.It reported earnings per share (EPS) of $8.
88 – which also surpassed Wall Street expectations of $8,23 in EPS,Meta’s stocks jumped nearly 10% in after-hours trading after the release,“We had strong business performance in 2025,” said founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg,“I’m looking forward to advancing personal superintelligence for people around the world in 2026.
”The earnings report follows Meta’s major expansion of its multibillion-dollar investment into AI infrastructure in 2025.On Tuesday, the company announced a deal worth up to $6bn with Corning, a manufacturer of complex materials for telecoms and electronics, to supply fiber optic cables for the tech giant’s data centers.Zuckerberg spoke on the earnings call about a “major AI acceleration” that will continue to grow in 2026.“We’re starting to see agents really work,” he said.“This will unlock the ability to build completely new products and transform how we work.
”The company is particularly focused on building superintelligence and AI that is even more tuned into a personal context.Zuckerberg described a broader effort to merge LLMs with the recommendation systems that already power Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Meta’s ads.“Today, our apps feel like algorithms that recommend content,” he said.“Soon, you’ll open our apps and you’ll have an AI that understands you and also happens to be able to show you great content or even generate great personalised content for you.”Meta expects to spend between $162-169bn in 2026 – with most of that money going towards infrastructure costs, followed by employee compensation – especially new hires to support AI expansion.
Investors have previously expressed concerns over the high costs of Meta’s investments into AI as broader worries about an unstable AI financial bubble circulate on Wall Street.Zuckerberg has maintained, in response, that these investments should turn out to be profitable over the long-term.Zuckerberg struck a similar tone on Wednesday’s call, when he was asked about how investments into AI will deliver revenue over the next few years.As it goes all-in on AI, Meta’s focus is moving away from virtual reality and the metaverse, previously a $10bn fixation of Zuckerberg’s; the tech giant began laying off more than 1,000 employees who focused on virtual reality this week, 10% of the Reality Labs division, according to multiple reports.Zuckerberg said he expects losses from Reality Labs to be similar to losses last year; the unit reported a loss of $6.
02bn on $955m in sales.He said on Wednesday that continued investment in Reality Labs would mostly be focused on glasses and wearables, noting that sales of Meta’s glasses more than tripled last year.As tech giants invest heavily in the physical infrastructure of AI, data centers are increasingly facing political scrutiny over their strain on energy bills and the environment.Georgia is leading a legislative effort to ban building new data centers until March – with the hope that government officials have time to better regulate them.Maryland and Oklahoma are considering similar legislation.
Democrats in Congress are investigating reports that big tech companies are passing on the soaring utility costs of data centers onto ordinary Americans,Even Donald Trump is worried about data centers’ effects on an already expensive electricity market,Meta is focused on a PR push to convince Americans that data centers aren’t so bad; the company spent $6,4m to run ads in November and December in state capitals and Washington, stating that data centers can help bring jobs to communities, the New York Times reported on Wednesday,Meta states in its press release that its data centers have already supported 30,000 skilled trade jobs during construction and 5,000 operational jobs, though it is unclear if those numbers are US-only or global.
But news reports suggest these facilities typically create few permanent jobs beyond the construction phase.Zuckerberg has also been ordered to testify in a landmark trial, which began this week.Meta and other tech companies are facing allegations that social media companies made their products intentionally addictive and harmful to young people.It’s the first time they will have to answer in open court – and while Zuckerberg has previously testified before Congress, fielding questions from seasoned prosecutors may involve harsher questioning.Zuckerberg did not speak about the trial on the earnings call.
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