“Meta’s Q4 performance underscores the company’s resilience in a still-uncertain digital ad market. By beating both earnings and revenue estimates, they’ve demonstrated that cost discipline and efficiency gains are paying dividends”
By Nileena Sunil
The last quarter earnings for Meta reveal big returns following their push for AI. Meta’s efforts to incorporate artificial intelligence on its platform reportedly bolstered engagement and boosted advertising sales, prompting the company to report a 21% increase in quarterly revenue to $48.39 billion.
The tech company earned $20.83 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the October-December quarter. That’s up 49% from $14.02 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects 2025 to be the year “when a highly intelligent and personalized AI assistant reaches more than 1 billion people,” and that he expects Meta AI to be that AI assistant.
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Zuckerberg also stated that he had no plans to curb Meta’s AI spending, following DeepSeek’s disruption with its cost-effective AI model. He stated that while it is possible that companies will eventually require fewer computing resources to train these powerful models, having a ton of server power may be necessary when the software is actually running and performing actions, resulting in “a higher level of intelligence and a higher quality of service.”
It was also reported that Meta also assembled four “war rooms” of engineers to respond to potential breakthrough AI developments spearheaded by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
“It’s going to be expensive for us to serve all of these people because we are serving a lot of people,” said Zuckerberg, whose company said it had 3.35 billion daily active people in the fourth quarter.
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“Meta’s Q4 performance underscores the company’s resilience in a still-uncertain digital ad market. By beating both earnings and revenue estimates, they’ve demonstrated that cost discipline and efficiency gains are paying dividends,” said Jesse Cohen, an analyst with Investing.com.
“However, the real headline is their commitment to aggressive capital expenditures. This signals Meta is doubling down on its AI infrastructure and metaverse ambitions, even as investors grapple with the costs.”