Meta’s shares jumped more than 10 per cent off the back of better than expected second-quarter earnings, in a sign of Wall Street confidence as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg doubles down on his big bet on artificial intelligence.
In recent months, the chief executive has embarked on an aggressive hiring spree, offering sign-on bonuses of more than $100 million to tempt AI talent from rivals such as OpenAI, Apple and Google to a new secretive “superintelligence” lab inside the company.
Strong financial results will help reassure investors concerned over whether Mr Zuckerberg’s increasingly sprawling AI ambitions will eventually bear fruit and not overwhelm the otherwise healthy advertising-based business with costs.
In earnings reported on Wednesday, revenues rose 22 per cent to $47.5 billion (€41.6 billion) in the three months to the end of June from the year before, well surpassing expectations of $44.8 billion, a sign of the robustness of its advertising business.
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Net income increased 36 per cent to $18.3 billion, also higher than consensus estimates of just over $15.3 billion, compiled by S&P Capital IQ.
In its outlook, Meta raised the lower end of its 2025 capital expenditures forecast to between $66 billion and $72 billion from its April outlook of $64 billion to $72 billion.
It added that “there are a few factors we expect will provide meaningful upward pressure on our 2026 total expense growth rate”, citing the scaling up of its infrastructure and growth in employee compensation due to its AI efforts.
The company also forecast its third-quarter revenues would be $47.5 billion to $50.5 billion, above consensus estimates of $46.3 billion.
Shares rose about 10 per cent in after-hours trading in New York.
Mr Zuckerberg’s “superintelligence” lab is tasked with developing advanced AI that he hopes will surpass the intelligence of humans but has promised can be supported by the company’s well-capitalised business.
Alongside the talent blitz, he has this month announced several large data centre projects, as well as new nuclear and renewable energy deals, as he builds the infrastructure needed to support his AI drive.
While the exact vision, timeline and moneymaking strategy remains unclear, Mr Zuckerberg in a memo posted earlier on Wednesday said Meta was focused on building “personal superintelligence” through which “people will have greater agency to improve the world in the directions they choose”, rather than directing the technology solely towards automation and productivity gains.
“We have the resources and the expertise to build the massive infrastructure required, and the capability and will to deliver new technology to billions of people across our products,” he wrote. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
