At the earnings conference of tech giant Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the company's strong momentum in the field of artificial intelligence. Despite the challenges, Meta's AI investment has begun to show results and will continue to increase investment in the future.
At a recent financial report conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company's artificial intelligence (AI) investment is showing "strong momentum".
Although Meta's quarterly revenue and earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations, Zuckerberg expects the company's AI spending to increase further next year. Although Meta's stock has risen by more than 70% in 2024, hitting a new high, the stock price fell by about 3% in after-hours trading after the financial report was released.
In its financial report, Meta reported revenue growth of 19% in the third quarter to $40.6 billion, almost comparable to Wall Street's expectations. Net profit also rose sharply by 35%, to $15.7 billion, far exceeding the $13.6 billion forecast by analysts. In addition, the number of daily active users of Meta's social applications increased by 5%, reaching 3.3 billion.
Zuckerberg mentioned in an analyst call that with the advancement of new AI technologies, he sees many new opportunities to accelerate the company's core business and is expected to bring good returns on investment in the coming years.
He said the platform's AI-driven content recommendation feature has increased the usage time of Facebook and Instagram by 8% and 6% respectively. He also mentioned that new content categories may be added to these platforms in the future, including content generated by AI or summary by AI, indicating that relevant testing is currently underway.
Zuckerberg also introduced the growing user acceptance of Meta AI chatbot Meta AI, and the increasing use of the large language model Llama among enterprises and developers. Llama's training scale is a leader in the industry.
However, Meta's Reality Labs in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality is still facing challenges, with revenue of only $270 million in the third quarter and operating losses of $4.4 billion. Zuckerberg also admitted that Reality Labs' annual operating losses are expected to increase significantly. The company also revealed that they are reorganizing the teams of WhatsApp, Instagram and Reality Labs, laying off some of their employees and relocating others.
Meta's chief financial officer Susan Lee said the company will further increase its investment in Reality Labs, infrastructure and generative AI, prioritizing these areas. She also mentioned that sales in the fourth quarter are expected to be between $45 billion and $48 billion. Meta raises its full-year capital expenditure forecast to $38 billion to $40 billion and expects significant increase in infrastructure spending.
Key points:
- Meta's revenue grew 19% in the third quarter, and its net profit rose 35% year-on-year, exceeding market expectations.
- Zuckerberg stressed the future potential of AI technology in the company and is expected to increase related investments.
- Reality Labs faces huge losses and operating losses are expected to increase significantly.
Meta's financial report demonstrates its strong performance in the AI field. Despite the challenges, the company is confident in the future and will continue to increase investment and promote technological innovation.