Just hours before its after-the-bell Q4 earnings call Wednesday (Jan. 28), it was common to see a headline calling for Meta to defend and maybe even trim its artificial intelligence (AI) spending. “Meta to Report Q4 Earnings Amid AI Spending Concerns” was typical. But there was at least one person who didn’t share those concerns and apparently didn’t even get the post.
“I think my answers to a lot of your questions on this particular call may be somewhat unfulfilling because we’re in this interesting period where we’ve been rebuilding our AI effort, and we’re six months into that, and I’m happy with how it’s going,”
Meta Chairman Mark Zuckerberg told his analyst audience on the companies Q4 earnings call. “But we are going to be rolling out our initial set of models and products and businesses around that over the coming months, and I will have a lot more to share on all of those fronts at that point.”
The implied message: See you in 90 days. In the meantime, Meta, is planning a huge jump in spending to build out its AI muscle. Management said it expects capital expenditures in 2026 to land between $115 billion and $135 billion, nearly double the $72 billion it spent last year. A big chunk of that money will go toward new data centers and other computing infrastructure that powers AI. Meta also says it plans to hire more researchers as it works on what it calls a “superintelligent” AI model.
“Soon, we’ll be able to understand people’s unique personal goals, and tailor feeds to show each person content that helps them improve their lives in the ways that they want,” Zuckerberg said on the call.
“This also has implications for commerce. Our ads today help businesses find just the right very specific people who are interested in their products. New agentic shopping tools will allow people to find just the right, very specific set of products from the businesses in our catalog. We’re focused on making these experiences work across both our feeds and across business messaging.”
The size of the increase is striking. Meta spent $28 billion in 2023 and $39 billion in 2024. Now it’s talking about spending levels that could even outpace bigger AI rivals like Google, which spent $93 billion last year. CFO Susan Li pointed out on several occasions that the operating income estimate for 2026 will be higher than 2025’s number despite the increased capex.
Advertising Engine
Meta can afford the push because its ad business keeps throwing off cash. In the fourth quarter, revenue hit $59.89 billion, up 24% from a year earlier. Profit was $22.76 billion, up 9.2%. The company said its AI investments are already paying off by improving ad targeting and making its recommendations for videos and posts more relevant to users.
In addition to the AI spend and lack of projected ROI, the call was also notable for sketching a near-term product cycle built around what he called “personal superintelligence” — AI that can understand a user’s personal context, including their history, interests and relationships, and then act on that context in useful ways. He said Meta is leaning into agents that “really work,” arguing they can unlock entirely new products and also change how work gets done inside the company.
A big part of that vision is folding large language models into Meta’s recommendation engines, so the apps don’t just suggest content, but can better understand what people are trying to accomplish and tailor experiences accordingly, including commerce. Zuckerberg pointed to “agentic shopping” tools that help people find the right products from Meta’s catalog, and he also framed AI as the driver of new, more immersive media formats beyond today’s text-photo-video progression.
Where this all converges, Zuckerberg argued, is smart glasses. He called glasses “the ultimate incarnation” of an AI assistant that can see and hear what you do, talk with you throughout the day, and even place information or a custom interface directly in your field of view. He said sales of Meta’s glasses “more than tripled” last year and likened the moment to the industry shift from flip phones to smartphones.
The context is that glasses are still small compared to Meta’s core machine. In the quarter, Meta reported $59.9 billion in total revenue, including $58.9 billion from its Family of Apps business. Reality Labs, the division that houses wearables and other immersive hardware, posted $955 million in Q4 revenue. But Zuckerberg made clear where the emphasis is going next, saying most Reality Labs investment will be directed toward glasses and wearables as Meta tries to turn early momentum into a mainstream device cycle.
