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Meta Reports Strong Q4 Earnings and Announces Aggressive AI Investment

Meta posted $8.88 EPS on $59.9B revenue, guided Q1 revenue above estimates, and unveiled a $115‑$135B AI capex plan while addressing Reality Labs losses.
29 January 2026 by
TechStora Editorial Board

Q4 Financial Highlights

Meta Platforms Inc. delivered earnings before stock‑based compensation of $8.88 per share on $59.89 billion of revenue, surpassing Wall Street targets of $8.23 per share and $58.59 billion in revenue.

Net income rose to $22.76 billion from $20.83 billion a year earlier.

Advertising Dominance

The advertising business generated $58.1 billion, representing 97% of total revenue.

Daily active users across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp reached 3.58 billion.

AI Ambitions and Superintelligence Labs

Chief Financial Officer Susan Li highlighted a fiscal‑2026 expense outlook of $162‑$169 billion, driven largely by AI investments.

Capital expenditures are projected at $115‑$135 billion, nearly double the $72.2 billion spent in 2025.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Superintelligence Labs will launch its first AI models “in the coming months” and referenced the upcoming “Avocado” model as the successor to Llama 4.

  • Investment in Scale AI: $14.3 billion
  • New AI leadership: Alexandr Wang

Reality Labs Losses and Restructuring

Reality Labs posted an operating loss of $6.02 billion on $955 million of revenue, exceeding expectations.

The unit has accumulated nearly $80 billion in operating losses since its 2020 launch.

Meta announced layoffs of over 1,000 VR staff and a strategic shift toward AI and wearable devices such as Ray‑Ban Meta smart glasses.

Waabi Secures Major Funding

Robotics startup Waabi raised $750 million, with Uber committing up to $250 million for a robotaxi partnership.