Meta to plans huge investment in AI
Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, expects its annual capital spending to increase sharply in 2026 as it invests heavily in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the race to what it calls superintelligence.
Meta expects capital spending to be between $115 billion and $135 billion next year, up from about $72.22 billion in the previous year.
In response to the higher spending, the company’s shares fell about 2% in after-hours trading.
The company is building multiple large-scale data centres in the United States to provide the computing power needed for AI developments and has forged partnerships to support energy infrastructure, including collaborations with energy and technology companies.
Meta again posted above-average revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to quarterly figures.
In the last three months of 2025, revenue rose 24% year-on-year to $59.9 billion, slightly higher than Meta’s own forecast.
For the first quarter of 2026, the company is counting on sales between $53.5 billion and $56.5 billion.
Net profit also went up, rising about 9% to $22.8 billion compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In the third quarter of 2025, however, profits had temporarily fallen sharply due to a large one-off tax charge of almost $16 billion; without that charge, profits would have been much higher.
Meta also has a solid cash position, with about $81.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and generates free cash flow of about $14.1 billion.
Meta recently announced a major restructuring within Reality Labs, the division responsible for hardware and software around the metaverse, including VR headsets and virtual worlds. The move comes more than four years after Facebook changed its name to Meta, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg branded the metaverse as the future of the company.
This move comes more than four years after Facebook changed its name to Meta, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg branded the metaverse as the future of the company.
Reality Labs, which has suffered more than $70 billion in losses since the end of 2020, is laying off 10% of employees. This includes hitting well-known VR game studios such as Armature Studio, Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru Games, while some acquired projects such as the VR fitness app Supernatural are being reduced to maintenance only.
At the same time, the strategic focus is shifting increasingly towards generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-powered wearables – such as smart glasses. Zuckerberg is pumping billions into AI initiatives and redistributing resources within Reality Labs to drive growth in wearables.
As a result, Zuckerberg is pumping billions into AI initiatives and redistributing resources within Reality Labs to drive growth in wearables.
The social VR platform Horizon Worlds, once the flagship of the Metaverse ambition, is struggling with few users and is getting a new direction that looks more like mobile, low-threshold experiences, while the original idea of a business, VR-based virtual world is on the back burner.
Emerce
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers