MENLO PARK, CA — Meta Platforms (META) reminded the world on Thursday why it remains a titan of the digital age, delivering a fourth-quarter earnings report that blew past Wall Street estimates. However, the real story wasn’t just the record-breaking revenue—it was the staggering $115 billion to $135 billion price tag CEO Mark Zuckerberg has placed on the company’s 2026 AI ambitions.
The announcement sent Meta shares climbing as much as 10% in after-hours trading, settling to an 8% gain in Thursday’s premarket. Investors, it seems, are willing to forgive a massive spending spree as long as the advertising machine keeps humming.
By the Numbers: Q4 2025 Performance
Meta’s core business, powered by AI-driven ad targeting, showed no signs of slowing down despite a shifting regulatory landscape.
| Metric | Reported (Q4 2025) | Analyst Estimate | Year-over-Year Growth |
| Revenue | $59.9 Billion | $58.4 Billion | +24% |
| Earnings Per Share (EPS) | $8.88 | $8.16 | +30% |
| Operating Margin | 41% | ~39% | — |
| Daily Active People (DAP) | 3.54 Billion | 3.50 Billion | +8% |
Meta Surges on Q4 Beat as Zuckerberg Bets $135 Billion on “Superintelligence”
MENLO PARK, CA — Meta Platforms (META) reminded the world on Thursday why it remains a titan of the digital age, delivering a fourth-quarter earnings report that blew past Wall Street estimates. However, the real story wasn’t just the record-breaking revenue—it was the staggering $115 billion to $135 billion price tag CEO Mark Zuckerberg has placed on the company’s 2026 AI ambitions.
The announcement sent Meta shares climbing as much as 10% in after-hours trading, settling to an 8% gain in Thursday’s premarket. Investors, it seems, are willing to forgive a massive spending spree as long as the advertising machine keeps humming.
By the Numbers: Q4 2025 Performance
Meta’s core business, powered by AI-driven ad targeting, showed no signs of slowing down despite a shifting regulatory landscape.
| Metric | Reported (Q4 2025) | Analyst Estimate | Year-over-Year Growth |
| Revenue | $59.9 Billion | $58.4 Billion | +24% |
| Earnings Per Share (EPS) | $8.88 | $8.16 | +30% |
| Operating Margin | 41% | ~39% | — |
| Daily Active People (DAP) | 3.54 Billion | 3.50 Billion | +8% |
The $14.3 Billion Talent Grab: Alexandr Wang Joins the Fold
In a move that signaling Meta’s “all-in” stance, the company confirmed the successful integration of its $14.3 billion investment for a 49% stake in Scale AI. More importantly, Scale’s founder, 29-year-old Alexandr Wang, has officially taken the reins as Meta’s Chief AI Officer.
Wang is now leading the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs, a division tasked with one goal: achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This move is seen as a direct response to Meta’s recent internal struggles, including the high-profile delays of its flagship Llama 4 “Behemoth” model.
Llama 4: From Open-Weights to Proprietary?
While Meta has long been the champion of the “open-weights” movement, rumors are swirling that the company may be closing its doors. Internal reports suggest that Llama 4 Behemoth—a massive 2-trillion parameter model—has faced development hurdles, failing to consistently outperform rivals like Google’s Gemini 3.
As a result, Meta is reportedly considering making its next frontier models proprietary. This would mark a seismic shift in strategy, moving away from the ecosystem-building approach that made the Llama series a favorite among independent developers.
Reality Check: Layoffs and the Wearable Pivot
Even as Meta pours billions into data centers, it is tightening its belt elsewhere. The company recently slashed 10% of its workforce (approximately 1,000 jobs) within the Reality Labs division.
The focus is shifting. While the “pure” metaverse of virtual reality headsets has seen slower-than-expected adoption, Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses are a breakout hit. The company plans to reallocate savings from the layoffs into its wearables division, aiming to turn Ray-Ban Meta glasses into the primary interface for its new “personal superintelligence” agents.
A Global Regulatory Storm
The financial celebration is tempered by a darkening legal horizon. Meta is currently fighting a multi-front war against regulators:
- The FTC Appeal: On January 21, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission officially appealed its antitrust loss against Meta. The agency is once again seeking the divestiture of Instagram and WhatsApp, arguing they were acquired solely to crush competition.
- The “Under 16” Bans: Australia’s landmark ban on social media for minors is now in effect, and France has passed similar legislation set for September 2026. The UK is also moving toward a ban for children under 16, threatening a core demographic of Meta’s user base.
The Road Ahead
Meta enters 2026 in a paradoxical position: it is more profitable than ever, yet under immense pressure to prove that its $135 billion investment will yield a “superintelligence” capable of toppling Google and OpenAI. With Alexandr Wang at the helm of its AI lab and a pivot toward AI wearables, Zuckerberg is betting the entire farm that the future of computing won’t be on a screen, but in the cloud—and on our faces.
Meta’s Q4 Earnings Analysis This video provides a deep dive into the financial metrics and strategic shifts discussed during Meta’s latest earnings call.