Meta’s Earnings Beat Sends Its Stock Higher as Zuckerberg Highlights AI Initiatives

Meta Platforms (META) reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ estimates, sending its stock higher in extended trading Wednesday.

The company reported second-quarter revenue of $39.07 billion, a 22% jump year-over-year, and above analysts’ estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. Net income came in at $13.47 billion or $5.16 per share, up 73% from the same period a year earlier, also ahead of projections.

Meta’s Strong Quarter Comes Amid AI Push

“We had a strong quarter, and Meta AI is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, highlighting the company’s advances in artificial intelligence (AI).

“We’ve released the first frontier-level open source AI model, we continue to see good traction with our Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and we’re driving good growth across our apps,” Zuckerberg added.

Meta recently released Llama 3.1, its most capable open-source AI model yet, in its efforts to compete with the likes of Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI, Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, and Amazon-backed (AMZN) Anthropic.

The company also lifted the lower end of its outlook for full-year capital expenditures to $37 billion from $35 billion as Meta invests in AI, with the upper end unchanged at $40 billion.

Meta said it expects revenue in the third quarter of between $38.5 billion and $41 billion, roughly in line with analysts’ projections.

Shares of Meta were up over 5% to $499.47 in extended trading as of 5:10 p.m. ET Wednesday following the company’s earnings release.