Meta lifts capital expenditure forecast, doubling down on AI push

Synopsis

Meta Platforms is significantly increasing its capital expenditure forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion by 2026, doubling down on AI infrastructure investments despite planned layoffs. The Facebook-parent's user base continues to grow, with daily active people reaching 3.56 billion.

Meta Platforms raised its annual capital expenditure forecast on Wednesday, doubling down on its decision to plow billions into artificial intelligence infrastructure even as it seeks cost savings via planned layoffs.

The Facebook-parent now expects 2026 capital expenditure between $125 billion and $145 billion, compared with its prior forecast of $115 billion to $135 billion.

Shares of the company fell around 5% in extended trading.

Family daily active people (DAP), a metric Meta uses to track unique users who ‌open any one ⁠of ⁠its apps in a day, rose 4% from a year earlier to 3.56 billion.

The results come weeks after Reuters reported first about Meta's plans for sweeping layoffs, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg attempts to aggressively integrate AI into the company's workflows and reshape its workforce around the technology.

Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, has been spending heavily on AI infrastructure and high compensation for employees such as those working in its Meta Superintelligence Labs, which released its first AI model ⁠called Muse ‌Spark earlier this month.

The company's robust ad platform, which allows advertisers to automate and personalize their campaigns, has remained its growth engine and has helped support its ⁠investments in AI infrastructure.

Its Advantage+ ad automation tools are powered by ad-retrieval engine Andromeda, ranking architecture Lattice and generative recommendation model GEM, helping it attract more marketers on the platform even as companies face geopolitical uncertainty due to the Middle East conflict.

Meta launched ads on messaging service WhatsApp and microblogging platform Threads last year, intensifying competition with platforms like Elon Musk's X. Simultaneously, Instagram's Reels continue to jostle with TikTok and YouTube Shorts in the lucrative short-video market.

For the first time, Meta is projected to ‌overtake Alphabet as the world's biggest online advertiser, with an expected $243.46 billion in global net ad revenue this year, excluding traffic acquisition costs. The forecast, by research firm Emarketer, puts the Google- and YouTube-parent's ⁠annual ad revenue at $239.54 billion.

Last week, the company expanded the availability of Meta AI business assistant, designed to help advertisers optimize campaign performance and resolve technical issues through real-time guidance.

Meta is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees' computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes to train its AI models, part of a broad initiative to build AI agents that can perform work tasks autonomously, Reuters reported last week.

Meanwhile, China ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion-plus acquisition of AI startup Manus on Monday, as Beijing tightens scrutiny of U.S. investment in domestic startups developing frontier technologies.

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