#Meta #Making #Lot #Progress #Spending #Grows
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms (META), said on an earnings call on Wednesday that more spending on artificial intelligence (AI) products and infrastructure “may not be what investors want to hear in the near term,” but he feels it is necessary for the giant. Technology. To seize opportunities in this industry.
The earnings announcement came on the heels of a third quarter that beat Meta estimates, with net income coming in more than $2 billion higher than expected. Advertising revenue, which represents the bulk of Meta’s revenue, beat expectations as the company said its AI efforts had a positive impact on the effectiveness of its ads.
Meta also raised the lower end range of its expected capital expenditures to $38 billion to $40 billion, from $37 billion to $40 billion previously, as the tech giant and many of its peers increase investments in developing artificial intelligence products.
Spending on artificial intelligence will grow in 2025
While Zuckerberg and CFO Susan Lee did not provide a digital forecast for Meta’s spending in 2025, Lee said they expect spending to grow next year, including a “significant acceleration in the growth of infrastructure expenditures” to support Meta’s AI products.
Zuckerberg said Meta is “making a lot of progress” with the products it has released so far, such as its Meta AI chatbot and AI features for its Ray-Ban smart glasses. Zuckerberg also said he expects there will be more opportunities to use advances in technology to “accelerate our core business” and provide a “strong” return on investment (ROI) in the coming years.
Meta’s new Llama 4 AI model is scheduled for release early next year
Zuckerberg said Meta AI is still on track to become the most widely used AI assistant on the market by the end of the year, noting that it surpassed the 500 million monthly active users (MAU) threshold this quarter.
Zuckerberg also said that Llama 4, the latest generation of Meta’s Large Language Model (LLM), has “entered its development phase,” and smaller models of Llama 4 are scheduled to launch “sometime early next year.” The upgraded model will have better thinking ability, faster response times and other new capabilities, Meta’s CEO said.
Meta shares fell 3.3% in extended trading after the earnings call. They were up 67% during the year through Wednesday’s close.
#Meta #Making #Lot #Progress #Spending #Grows
