Meta Q3 revenue tops estimates, with Muse accounts topping 10m, says Zuckerberg

Meta Platforms said on Wednesday that its third-quarter profit jumped more than threefold, as the social media giant’s revenue climbed sharply.

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported net income of US$9.86 billion, or US$3.83 per share, for the July-September period. That’s up from a profit of US$2.71 billion, or US$1.05 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 26 per cent to US$64.60 billion, up from US$51.24 billion in the prior-year quarter and above the US$63.34 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.

“We hit major milestones this quarter towards delivering personal super intelligence for everyone – including launching Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “Our investments are paying off, the core business is strong, and we’re seeing velocity across the board.”

In Auust, Meta reached an US$18-billion settlement with 48 US states over the effects of social media on teen mental health. The company agreed to take steps to keep children under 13 off Instagram and Facebook, and teens ages 14 and 18 in age-appropriate accounts.

Excluding the impact of an US$9.89-billion charge related to this agreement, the company’s third-quarter earnings would have been US$7.40 per share, Meta said. The year-ago quarter included a one-time tax charge of nearly US$16 billion.

On Wednesday, a judge ordered Meta to pay New Mexico US$25 billion after a jury found the company liable for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook, marking the biggest fine ever against the tech giant.

Meta said the number of daily active users on its “family of apps” – Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp – grew 3 per cent from a year earlier to an average of 3.64 billion.

And during a call with analysts, Zuckerberg noted that more than 10 million people in the US and Canada have set up accounts for Muse, the personal artificial intelligence agent the company launched in August.

“About 25 per cent of people who have set up Muse use it on any given day,” he said. The agent is for people 18 and over and is designed to help users with day-to-day tasks like schedules, shopping and other plans.

The CEO noted that Muse requires significant computing power to run, but that the company expects to improve its cost efficiency by more than 10 times in the next year, “which will enable it to be profitable once the revenue lines are at scale”.

For the current quarter, Meta is forecasting revenue in the range of US$73 billion to US$76 billion, the midpoint of which is higher than the US$73.65 billion analysts are expecting.

Total expenses were US$51.61 billion, an increase of 68 per cent year-over-year. This includes the charge stemming from its multistate legal settlement.

The Menlo Park, California-based company had 66,775 employees as of September 30, a decrease of 15 per cent year-over-year.

Management now anticipates capital expenditure to range from US$135 billion to US$145 billion this year.

Meta didn’t provide an estimate for spending next year, but noted that it expects to continue investing aggressively to support its core and AI businesses

The company also did not give revenue guidance for 2027. But it said it expects losses at its Reality Labs segment to narrow to around US$15 billion next year as the company shifts investments to other areas, primarily AI. Reality Labs builds Meta’s augmented reality, virtual reality and related wearable devices.

Also on Wednesday, Meta announced that its board approved the creation of a new class of publicly listed, non-voting Class C common stock, effective in January. The move is intended in part to boost the company’s ability to raise capital for AI infrastructure investments.

“Meta plans to issue non-voting shares to fund AI investments without diluting CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s control,” said Andrew Rocco, stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research.

Meta’s shares closed up 0.5 per cent in regular trading on Wednesday. The shares rose 2.9 per cent in after-hours trading after the results were released. The stock is up 5.7 per cent so far this year.

AP