Meta Q3 2026 Earnings: $64.6 Billion Revenue Meets a Massive AI Spending Plan

Meta's latest earnings highlighted the growing distance between operating performance and market expectations for artificial intelligence. Associated Press reported that Meta's third-quarter 2026 revenue climbed 26% from a year earlier to $64.60 billion. Net income reached $9.86 billion, equal to $3.83 per share, compared with $2.71 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

Strong reported revenue says the company's businesses sold more advertising and services. Net income includes various charges and accounting effects, while free cash flow also depends on capital spending. A stock's price reacts to expectations about future performance, not just to last quarter's result. Reuters reported Meta shares weakening on October 22 even after revenue exceeded analysts' expectations.

AP reported Meta's 2026 capital-expenditure plan in a range of $135 billion to $145 billion. These investments can help deliver more computing capacity for AI tools and advertising systems, but shareholders will ultimately examine monetization, useful lives, depreciation and borrowing requirements. Analysts should compare growth in the core advertising business with cash investment in AI infrastructure rather than assume one immediately justifies the other.

Read the earnings release and management commentary for operating margin, expense guidance, cash generated by operations, capital intensity and the timeline for new products. Meta also discussed AI agents and distribution; product adoption is meaningful, but reported user counts are not the same thing as product-level earnings. The distinction is especially relevant when investors already price in rapid growth.

Meta is a major technology constituent whose capital-spending intentions may influence investor views of chip suppliers, data centers and cloud investment more broadly. A higher capex plan may support demand for infrastructure in the near term while creating a separate challenge for the spender's returns. Both statements can be true at once.

This analysis uses AP's reported quarterly figures and Reuters' October 22 market context. It is not personalized advice and does not imply any upcoming session's price direction.