Social media company Meta reported a one-time charge of nearly $16 billion in the third quarter related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax law and said its capital spending next year would be “markedly higher” than in 2025.
The company’s shares fell about 6% after the close of regular markets.
Excluding the charge, Meta said its third-quarter net income would have grown to $18.64 billion from $15.93 billion, compared with the final profit of $2.71 billion.
The social media company now expects capital expenditures to be between $70 billion and $72 billion, up from its previous guidance of between $66 billion and $72 billion.
Meta continues to benefit from its huge user base.
Its powerful AI-optimized ad platform helps marketers automate campaigns, improve video ad quality, translate ads, and generate personas-based images to target different customer groups.
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Meta lays off about 600 AI Superintelligence Labs employees: this is what affects them
The company has launched ads on its WhatsApp messaging platform and social network Threads, competing directly with platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, while Instagram’s Reels continues to compete with ByteDance’s TikTok and YouTube Shorts for advertising revenue in the short video market.
Meta has redoubled its efforts in AI, aiming to achieve superintelligence, a theoretical milestone in which machines could outthink humans.
To this end, Meta reorganized its AI activities under the Superintelligence Labs unit in June, after the departure of senior officials and the poor reception of its Llama 4 model.
Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has personally led an aggressive talent-hiring campaign and said the company would spend hundreds of billions of dollars building several massive AI data centers for superintelligence.
With information from Reuters.
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