Meta Slides 3% Premarket as AI Capex of Up to $145B Overshadows Q3 Beat
META sits 31% above its 52-week low of $520.26.
Summary
Meta is down about 3% premarket even though Q3 revenue of $64.6B beat the $63.37B consensus and management guided Q4 sales above estimates. The problem is spending: annual capex is now forecast at $135B-$145B, and Q3 free cash flow swung to a $2.12B deficit from positive a year earlier. The quarter also carried a $9.89B legal charge tied to the New Mexico privacy case, where a judge ordered a $25B penalty that Meta will appeal. Offsetting the pressure, at least 13 brokerages raised price targets after the print, and Deutsche Bank's Benjamin Black argues AI infrastructure is becoming a revenue asset rather than a cost. The stock is up more than 5% this year, so this is a valuation reset on spending, not a demand problem.
At the time of this announcement, META was trading at $681.40 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.8T. The 52-week trading range was $520.26 to $779.82. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: Reuters.