On Meta’s 4th quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted his company would experience a “major AI acceleration” in 2026 as it races to catch up after falling behind Google, OpenAI and Anthropic in leading AI models in 2025.
It has plenty of money to make that happen: The company beat Q4 expectations, delivering $59.89 billion in revenue, compared to consensus analyst estimates of $58.41 billion. Earnings per share came in at $8.88 ,versus expectations for $8.19.
And the company made clear spending will continue to be massive. Meta forecast its capital expenditures could rise to as much as $135 billion this year, nearly double the $72 billion it reported in 2025, as it unveiled its most radical AI spending plans to date, largely driven by increased investment in AI infrastructure costs and talent.
In comments on the earnings call, Zuckerberg harked back to last summer, when he rebuilt the foundations of Meta’s AI program, bringing in Scale CEO Alexandr Wang to head up Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Over the coming months, he said, Meta would start shipping AI models and products. “I expect our first models will be good, but more importantly, they will show the rapid trajectory that we’re on,” he said. “And then I expect us to steadily push the frontier over the course of the year, as we continue to release new models.”
The goal? Zuckerberg again made clear that it is “personal superintelligence.”
“We’re starting to see the promise of AI that understands our personal context, including our history, our history, our interests, our content and our relationships,” he said. “A lot of what makes agents valuable is the unique context that they can see, and we believe that Meta will be able to provide a uniquely personal experience.”
In addition, he said the company is working on merging LLMs with Meta’s recommendation systems on its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads. “We think that the current systems are primitive compared to what will be possible soon,” he said. “Soon, we’ll be able to understand people’s unique personal goals and tailor feeds to show each person content that helps them improve their lives in the ways that they want.”
Zuckerberg also predicted that in the near future, new immersive and interactive formats will be possible only because of AI advances. “Today, our apps feel like algorithms that recommend content,” he said. “Soon, you’ll open our apps and you’ll have an AI that understands you and also happens to be able to show you great content or even generate great personalized content for you.”
Glasses, he said, are “the ultimate incarnation of this vision,” pointing out that sales of Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses more than tripled last year and that investment in the company’s Reality Labs will mostly go towards glasses and wearables.
The biggest spend, however, will be in infrastructure. He touted the recently announced Meta Compute organization, saying he believed being the most efficient company in building infrastructure for AI will become a strategic advantage.
Finally, Zuckerberg announced that Meta is investing in AI tools for its workforce, saying the company will elevate individual contributors and flatten teams. “Our north star is building the best place for individuals to make a massive impact,” he said, pointing out that what many big teams at Meta are doing can now be accomplished by “a single, very talented person.”
