Meta says revenue will be weak as it spends even more on AI

Push to integrate AI into Meta products boosts financial results, but share prices tumble with weak sales forecast

Meta’s drive to integrate artificial intelligence into its products yielded strong financial results for the second quarter in a row. The company plans to spend even more on AI in the coming months, though, and its share price slumped more than 15% as the company reported earnings Wednesday. A weak sales forecast and higher spending guidance rattled investors.

Mark Zuckerberg said his main focus for the rest of 2024 and likely 2025 will be “getting millions or billions of people to use Meta AI” rather than generating revenue from it. He cautioned that Meta products such Instagram Reels have in the past not immediately generated revenue as they scaled before they became profitable pieces of Meta’s ad business.