Shares in Meta Platforms stock sank by over 10% on Thursday after the tech giant’s latest earnings report revealed more AI spending. Meta’s third-quarter earnings beat expectations on revenue but fell short on earnings per share due to a one-time, tax-related charge. However, the real dip came after Meta revealed increased capital expenditures this year and in 2026 due to its AI buildout.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company has been one of the largest investors in AI during the ongoing AI wave in 2025. Compared to Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple, which are all pretty big investors as well, Meta has been on a massive spending spree in recent months. The company has spent billions to hire talent and build the data centers necessary to meet its demand for AI. However, if EPS is falling short like it did in Q3 due to increased spending on AI, investors seemingly believe investing in the company isn’t worth the risk.
Furthermore, Meta says it’s further increasing its capital expenditures estimates for 2025 to $70 billion to $72 billion, versus its prior outlook of $66 billion to $72 billion. “Our current expectation is that capital expenditures dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than in 2025,” Meta CFO Susan Li said in her commentary. “We also anticipate total expenses will grow at a significantly faster percentage rate in 2026 than in 2025, with growth driven primarily by infrastructure costs, including incremental cloud expenses and depreciation.”
While Wall Street appears worried about Meta stock, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t. “Meta Superintelligence Labs is off to a great start, and we continue to lead the industry in AI glasses,” he said during the earnings call If we deliver even a fraction of the opportunity ahead, then the next few years will be the most exciting period in our history.” The Meta CEO appears to be banking on huge gains in the future to make up for the high spending now. He also offered a contingency plan, noting that if AI doesn’t grow as expected, the company can repurpose infrastructure for other workloads “in a very profitable way.“