Meta plans to spend $115 to $135 billion on AI development in 2026 / Photo: Unsplash/Mariia Shalabaieva
The revenue forecast for Meta Platforms - the owner of Facebook and Instagram - for the beginning of 2026 was significantly higher than analysts' consensus. The company expects sales in the first quarter of 2026 to be between $53.5 billion and $56.5 billion, while Wall Street had anticipated $51.41 billion, CNBC reported. Meta shares were up 10% at the moment in evening trading on Jan. 28 after the release of its fourth-quarter earnings.
The company also beat analysts' expectations for revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter. Earnings per share totaled $8.88 versus expectations of $8.23, CNBC reported, citing LSEG. Revenue grew 24% year-on-year to $59.89 billion, while analysts had forecast $58.59 billion. $58.1 billion of that came from the advertising business.
Reality Labs, the division responsible for VR and AR, including the successful Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses model, reported an operating loss of $6.02 billion on revenue of $955 million. Analysts had expected a loss of $5.67 billion and revenue of $940.8 million. Meta said it expects a similar level of Reality Labs losses in 2026 and that this will be the peak of losses, after which the company will begin to "gradually reduce them." Since Reality Labs launched in 2020, the division's cumulative operating losses have exceeded $80 billion, CNBC calculated. In early January, Meta made layoffs of more than 1,000 Reality Labs employees.
According to Meta, the number of daily active users across all of its apps totaled 3.58 billion - exactly as the market expected, CNBC notes.
Meta also warned that regulatory and legal risks in the EU and the US could "materially impact the business and financial results." The company noted that a number of high-profile lawsuits against social networks starting this year could eventually lead to significant losses.
AI costs
The company said total spending in 2026 will be between $162 billion and $169 billion, with capital expenditures related to AI development projected to be between $115 billion and $135 billion. Wall Street expected Meta to spend $110.7 billion on AI. By comparison, Meta's capital expenditures in 2025 were $72.2 billion.
Meta attributed CapEx's growth to "increased investment in Meta Superintelligence Labs and core business development." The new lab has attracted a stellar lineup of programmers dedicated to building superintelligence in 2025. Meta invested $14.3 billion in startup Scale AI over the past year to bring in its founder Alexander Wang and part of his team. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will unveil new AI models "over the next few months."
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
