Remember when Mark Zuckerberg decided the future was everyone hanging out as cartoon avatars in a digital world that looked like it was designed by someone who’d never seen actual humans? Yeah, that was… expensive. Like, $80 billion expensive. But here’s the plot twist: Meta’s latest earnings suggest they might have actually learned something from that spectacular money bonfire.
Meta just dropped their Q4 numbers, and honestly? They crushed it. Revenue hit $59.9 billion (up 24%), beating Wall Street’s expectations like they were playing financial whack-a-mole. Earnings per share came in at $8.88 versus the expected $8.22. Not bad for a company that spent the last few years convincing us we all wanted to attend virtual meetings as floating torsos.
The AI Difference: Actually Making Money
Here’s where it gets interesting. While Reality Labs (their VR division) is still hemorrhaging cash – $6 billion in losses this quarter alone – their AI investments are actually paying off. Like, real money, not Monopoly money.
Their core apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) generated $58.9 billion in revenue, up 25%. But here’s the kicker: AI is doing the heavy lifting. Ad impressions grew 18%, and the average price per ad went up 6%. Why? Because AI is making their ads smarter, their feeds more engaging, and their targeting less “why am I seeing ads for cat food when I don’t have a cat?”
Daily users creating content with Meta AI tripled year-over-year. People are actually using this stuff, which is refreshing after years of “the metaverse is coming” while everyone collectively shrugged.
The $135 Billion Question
Now for the scary part: Meta plans to spend $115-135 billion on AI in 2026. That’s not a typo. They’re basically betting the farm on becoming the AI company that also happens to run social media.
But here’s why this might not be another metaverse disaster: their core business is actually funding this expansion. While competitors like Google and Amazon are growing at 13% and 11% respectively, Meta’s cruising at 21% growth. Plus, they’re sitting on $81.6 billion in cash, so they’re not exactly scraping together couch cushions for this AI bet.
The Bottom Line
Meta’s stock jumped 10% after these earnings, and for good reason. Unlike the metaverse, which felt like throwing money into a digital black hole, their AI investments are showing real returns. Better ads, more engagement, actual revenue growth.
Sure, Zuckerberg is still talking about “personal superintelligence” (because of course he is), but at least this time the spending is tied to things people actually want to use. For investors willing to stomach some tech volatility, Meta’s transformation from metaverse money pit to AI profit machine makes it worth watching.
Sometimes the best lesson is learning from your own expensive mistakes.