Meta's Stock Down Despite User Growth
Meta's stock is down 17% in six months despite revenue growth and user engagement reported. Investors are skeptical of increased capital expenditure for AI infrastructure.
Meta's planned capital expenditure for 2026 is projected to be $35-40 billion, which is up from $30-35 billion in 2025. This increase is primarily to support AI infrastructure, including compute power, AI research and product development. Some analysts are concerned that Meta's heavy investments in the metaverse are distracting from its core business and AI development. The Reality Labs division, responsible for metaverse initiatives, lost $13.7 billion in 2023. Despite the stock downturn, Meta's family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) saw daily active people (DAP) average 3.19 billion for December 2023, an increase of 8% year-over-year. Monthly active people (MAP) averaged 3.98 billion for December 2023, up 6% year-over-year.
