Meta’s Upbeat Earnings Buy Time for AI Investment to Pay Off

Capital spending soars on buildout of AI infrastructure
Users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp reach 3.27 billion

WATCH: Meta reported sales of $39.1 billion for last quarter compared with analysts’ estimates of $38.34 billion. Mandeep Singh reports.Source: Bloomberg

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By Kurt Wagner

July 31, 2024 at 8:08 PM UTC

Updated on

August 1, 2024 at 1:38 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Meta Platforms Inc. reported better-than-expected sales in the second quarter on Wednesday, signaling that the company’s investments in artificial intelligence are helping it sell more targeted ads. Shares jumped in Thursday trading.

That progress is buying Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to prove that his bets on the metaverse and AI are worth their while. In a call with investors and analysts on Wednesday, he expounded on Meta’s push into the type of large language models that power AI chatbots and praised the company’s AI smart glasses and virtual reality headsets.