AI helps Meta achieve record performance in Q4, while Q1 guidance is disappointing; "burning money" to cope with DeepSeek, this year's spending may increase by 60% | Earnings report insights

In the fourth quarter, Meta's total revenue and advertising revenue both increased by 21% year-on-year, with EPS earnings exceeding analysts' expectations by 18% and growing over 50% year-on-year. The metaverse business incurred a loss of nearly $5 billion, slightly below expectations; the daily active users of the Facebook family of apps exceeded expectations, growing by 5% to 3.35 billion. The revenue guidance for the first quarter indicates a minimum growth of 8%, a significant slowdown, and no full-year revenue guidance was provided. This year's capital expenditure guidance is as high as $65 billion, 24% above analysts' expectations. Zuckerberg stated that the latest Llama model has made "significant progress" and believes there is room in the market for multiple AI apps to thrive, expecting that highly intelligent and personalized AI assistants will reach 1 billion people this year, with Meta's assistant leading the industry. The stock price initially fell over 5% in after-hours trading but later turned positive, rising over 5% at one point