Advertising revenue rose alongside a 10% increase in ad impressions and a 14% rise in average price per ad, supporting the company’s core business as it expands its artificial-intelligence operations.
The company forecast fourth-quarter 2026 revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion, with foreign currency expected to reduce year-over-year growth by about 1 percentage point. Without the legal charge, earnings per share would have been $7.
Meta also narrowed its 2026 capital-spending forecast to $135 billion-$145 billion and said it expects Reality Labs losses to fall to $18 billion-$19 billion this year. The company expects those losses to narrow to about $15 billion in 2027 as investment shifts toward artificial intelligence. Reality Labs includes Meta’s virtual- and augmented-reality products and related wearables.
Artificial intelligence is driving both the spending shift and Meta’s product plans. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said more than 10 million people in the United States and Canada had set up accounts for the Muse personal agent, which is designed for tasks such as shopping, scheduling and productivity. Meta has not launched Muse globally because of the computing power required to operate it, while management says efficiency improvements of more than tenfold are planned over the next year.
Meta’s board also approved a publicly listed, nonvoting Class C share class, effective in January 2027. The company plans to issue one Class C share for each outstanding Class A and Class B share, creating the economic effect of a two-for-one stock split without changing shareholder voting power. Meta said the new structure is intended to support capital raising, employee compensation and potential acquisitions while preserving Zuckerberg’s voting control.