Meta's Q4 Earnings, AI Investments, and Staffing Updates
Meta (META) is set to report its fourth-quarter financial performance after market close on Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by FactSet anticipate revenue to reach $47 billion for the period ended December, with net income estimated at $23.3 billion and earnings per share at $6.75.
AI Ambitions
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to allocate $60-$65 billion in capital expenditures towards AI initiatives in 2025. Zuckerberg expects Meta AI to "be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people" by then and anticipates Meta's Llama 4 model to "become the leading state-of-the-art model" this year. The company is also developing an "AI engineer" to enhance its research and development capabilities.
To support AI expansion, Meta is constructing a data center with a capacity of over two gigawatts, which will provide approximately one gigawatt of computing power by 2025. Meta aims to deploy 1.3 million GPUs by year-end and significantly grow its AI team.
Staffing Adjustments
Earlier this month, Meta announced plans to reduce headcount by 5%, impacting around 3,600 employees. The cuts will primarily target underperformers, who will reportedly be replaced later in the year. Zuckerberg stated that Meta typically identifies and terminates underperformers throughout the year, but will conduct more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.
Policy Changes
Alongside its AI investments, Meta has implemented new company policies under CEO Zuckerberg. These include reducing content moderation and discontinuing the platform's fact-checking system, reflecting Zuckerberg's closer ties to the Trump administration.