Meta's Daily Users Drop 20 Million Amid AI Spend Surge

Meta reports a decline of 20 million in "Family daily active people" — its metric for collective daily users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger — this quarter compared to the previous three months. The company attributes the fall to "internet disruptions in Iran, as well as a restriction on access to WhatsApp in Russia," according to its earnings call on Wednesday.

Meta increases its projected capital expenditures for 2026 to a range of $125-145 billion, $10 billion more than previous estimates. The Verge cites higher component pricing and additional costs for future data center capacity as drivers. Meta CFO Susan Li states the company had "underestimated our compute demand in the past."

Revenue grows 33 percent to $56.3 billion this quarter from $42.3 billion a year ago, marking the fastest growth since 2021.

Meta's Reality Labs unit, which builds wearables and VR devices, posts an operating loss of $4.03 billion for the quarter. Employees in the unit face two waves of layoffs since January.

Meta's stock price falls more than 7 percent following the earnings release.