Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.60 billion, representing year-on-year growth of 26% and exceeding the $63.34 billion expected by analysts. The company also disclosed that more than 10 million people in the United States and Canada have created accounts for Muse, the personal AI agent launched in August.
Net income for the July-to-September period reached $9.86 billion, or $3.83 per share, compared with $2.71 billion, or $1.05 per share, a year earlier. The latest quarter included a $9.89 billion charge connected to Meta’s multistate legal settlement over the effects of social-media platforms on teenagers. Excluding that charge, earnings would have been $7.40 per share.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said approximately 25% of people who had created Muse accounts were using the agent on a given day. The service is restricted to adults and is intended to assist with tasks including scheduling, shopping and personal planning. Meta expects to improve Muse’s computing-cost efficiency by more than tenfold over the next year, which the company believes could support profitability once its associated revenue streams reach sufficient scale.
Daily active users across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp averaged 3.64 billion, an increase of 3% from the previous year. Meta forecast fourth-quarter revenue of between $73 billion and $76 billion, with the midpoint exceeding prevailing market estimates.
The company narrowed its 2026 capital-expenditure guidance to between $135 billion and $145 billion, compared with its earlier range of $130 billion to $145 billion. It did not issue a spending estimate for 2027 but said it expects to continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure and its core businesses.
Meta also approved the creation of publicly traded, non-voting Class C common shares, effective in January. The structure is intended to strengthen its ability to finance acquisitions and AI infrastructure without diluting Zuckerberg’s voting control.
Reality Labs, which develops augmented-reality, virtual-reality and wearable products, is expected to record a narrower loss of approximately $15 billion next year as Meta redirects investment towards AI.
