Meta Q3 Earnings to Test Wall Street's Patience on AI Spending as Capex Set to Jump 117%

Meta Platforms (META) reports third-quarter results after Wednesday's market close, with investors focused on whether surging AI capital expenditures are translating into revenue. Analysts expect earnings per share of $3.56 on revenue of $63.3 billion, up from $1.05 and $51.2 billion a year earlier, per Bloomberg consensus. Capital expenditures are projected to climb 117% year over year to $41 billion, while the Reality Labs unit is seen posting a $5.2 billion operating loss. Sentiment has been rattled by Gartner's report last week projecting AI infrastructure spending above $8.5 trillion by 2030 against combined consumer and enterprise AI revenue of roughly $3.6 trillion — leaving more than $4 trillion in asset value at risk of impairment through 2032. Meta shares have fallen more than 3% over the past year as Wall Street presses for clarity on monetization. Bright spots include its Muse AI agent surpassing 10 million downloads in 40 days, faster than ChatGPT and Claude, plus new hardware unveiled at Meta Connect. Meta fell 1.59% Tuesday to $694.25.