Meta spent $34.91 billion on capital expenditures in a single quarter as its AI build-out keeps growing. The company reported third-quarter 2026 results on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026: revenue of $64.60 billion, up 26% from a year earlier, and net income of $9.86 billion, or $3.83 a share. Meta narrowed its 2026 capex forecast to $135 billion to $145 billion, from $130 billion to $145 billion.
The AI spending
Q3 capex was up from $31.08 billion in the second quarter, Business Insider reported. Free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion for the quarter, according to Meta's release. Meta said it expects to "continue investing aggressively" in 2027 and that its AI investments "are already delivering substantial incremental advertising revenue." CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed to the launch of Muse and Muse Wonder, which he called "our first frontier model."
Results included a $9.89 billion charge tied to Meta's August settlement with 52 state attorneys general over teen mental health. Excluding it, Meta said EPS would have been $7.40 and operating income $22.88 billion.
New Class C stock
Meta's board approved a new class of publicly listed, non-voting Class C common stock, effective in January 2027, and declared a one-time dividend of one Class C share for each Class A and Class B share. Meta said the new class is for "capital raising, employee compensation, potential acquisitions" and other purposes, and will keep its founder-led model. It said the dividend will not change anyone's voting power and expects Class A shares to trade as if after a two-for-one split.
Market reaction
Meta stock was up 4.12% after hours when Business Insider published, and TipRanks reported it about 2.5% higher in after-hours trading while Tesla was down nearly 3%. For Tesla's own AI spending plans, see our capex story; for Meta's compute build-out, see Prometheus in Ohio.
