Meta Platforms reported first-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat analyst expectations across the board, but an upward revision to its already substantial capital expenditure forecast sent the stock down more than 6% in after-hours trading. The Menlo Park company earned $26.77 billion, or $10.44 per share, in the January-March period, up 61% from the same quarter a year earlier, on revenue of $56.31 billion, a 33% year-over-year increase. Analysts had projected earnings of $6.67 per share on revenue of $55.6 billion.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it “a milestone quarter,” citing strong performance across Meta’s apps and the release of the first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. About 3.56 billion people used at least one Meta app daily in March, a slight decline from December that company leaders attributed to internet disruptions in Iran and restricted access to WhatsApp in Russia.
The quarterly beat was overshadowed for investors by Meta’s updated capital expenditure guidance. The company raised its 2026 spending forecast to between $125 billion and $145 billion, up from a previously announced range of $115 billion to $135 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs. The revision adds to an already aggressive AI infrastructure buildout that has been accompanied by layoffs of roughly 10% of the workforce, or approximately 8,000 workers, as the company redirects spending toward AI infrastructure and high-cost AI talent. Meta ended the quarter with nearly 78,000 employees, up 1% year over year.
For the current quarter, Meta projected revenue of between $58 billion and $61 billion, bracketing the analyst consensus of $59.48 billion. Zuckerberg pushed back on fears that AI will displace workers, saying on the post-earnings call that he sees AI as amplifying human capability rather than replacing it.
CFO Susan Li flagged regulatory and legal risks as potential headwinds. She noted increased scrutiny on youth-related issues in both the European Union and the United States, and pointed to a recent Los Angeles jury verdict finding Meta liable for harms to a young woman who began using its platforms as a child. Additional trials scheduled for this year and beyond, Li said, “may ultimately result in a material loss.”
