Meta Surpasses Earnings Expectations, Stock Climbs as Zuckerberg Emphasizes AI Innovations

Highlights

• Meta exceeded expectations with robust Q2 2024 financial results.
• Year-over-year revenue and profit increased significantly, surpassing analyst predictions.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg spotlighted groundbreaking AI developments, including the launch of Llama 3.1.
• Capital expenditure guidance raised to a minimum of $37 billion for 2024 to support AI infrastructure growth.

Meta Platforms (META) announced second-quarter earnings and revenue that outperformed analyst estimates, sending its stock price higher in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

The company posted Q2 revenue of $39.07 billion, marking a 22% increase compared to the previous year and exceeding expectations gathered by Visible Alpha. Net income reached $13.47 billion, or $5.16 per share, reflecting a 73% rise from the same quarter last year and beating forecasts.

Meta’s Robust Performance Driven by AI Focus

"Our strong quarterly performance reflects Meta AI’s rapid progress, positioning it to become the world’s leading AI assistant by year-end," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg, underscoring the company’s AI advancements.

"We have launched the first frontier-level open-source AI model, continue to gain traction with Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, and are experiencing solid growth across our application platforms," Zuckerberg added.

Meta recently introduced Llama 3.1, its most advanced open-source AI model to date, aiming to compete with industry leaders such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google, and Amazon-backed Anthropic.

The company raised the lower bound of its capital expenditure forecast for the year to $37 billion from $35 billion, maintaining the upper limit at $40 billion, reflecting increased investment in AI infrastructure.

Meta projects third-quarter revenue between $38.5 billion and $41 billion, aligning with analyst expectations.

Following the earnings announcement, Meta’s shares rose over 5%, reaching $499.47 in extended trading as of 5:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

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