Meta reported mixed financial results for the third quarter of 2025. The company posted record quarterly revenue but posted a large tax bill that dragged down earnings per share, the company announced Wednesday. The financial results come as Meta winds down a multibillion-dollar hiring spree focused on artificial intelligence talent.
The tech giant had quarterly revenue of $51.24 billion, beating Wall Street expectations and the company’s own forecasts for third-quarter sales. However, it reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.05, well below Wall Street’s forecast of $6.70 EPS. The significant decrease was due to a one-time non-cash income tax charge of $15.93 billion. Earnings per share would have been $7.25 without this one-time charge, the company said.
The report and scheduled call give investors another chance to see if the company’s lavish spending on AI infrastructure is justified. The company expects total expenses for the full year to range between $116 billion to $118 billion, raising the lower end of the range from $114 billion. The company also expects 2025 capital expenditures to be between $70 billion and $72 billion, up from a previously expected range of $66 billion to $72 billion. Meta said its fourth-quarter revenue would likely fall somewhere between $56 billion and $59 billion.
“We had a strong quarter for our business and community,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta. “Meta Superintelligence Labs is off to a great start and we continue to lead the industry in AI glasses. If we deliver even a small fraction of the opportunity ahead, the next few years will be the most exciting period in our history.”
Jesse Cohen, Senior Analyst at Investment.comHe said the latest report reveals “a growing tension between the company’s massive investments in AI infrastructure and investors’ expectations for near-term returns.”
It’s the first financial update since Meta said so Planned to lay off 600 employees from its AI unit — the same unit where the company went on a spending and hiring spree to restructure and fill with top AI talent from other companies. The company said the layoffs were an attempt to reduce inflation within the company’s “super intelligence” unit and reduce headcount there to just under 3,000 employees.
Investors will also likely hear more about the company’s latest move to fund and support the development of its network of data centers. Earlier this month, the company announced a new joint venture with Blue Owl Capital that will help the two companies build and finance a new $27 billion Hyperion data center complex in Louisiana, the largest Meta is involved in developing.
The company’s shares have witnessed a steady rise over the past six months. The previous two earnings reports beat Wall Street expectations. The broader US stock market also reached record levels during the week.
Meta also launched new Ray-Ban Display glasses last month, which feature a screen built into the lenses, and analysts are looking forward to hearing sales numbers. Meta’s original camera glasses, simply called Meta Ray-Bans, proved to be a popular tool. Both types of glasses have already raised privacy concerns. While Meta designed the glasses not to turn on if the light that alerts people that the glasses are recording is covered, a $60 modification can disable the light. 404 media reported.
“I suspect that these glasses, in particular, will appeal mostly to ‘tech-curious’ early adopters, and that the scheduled demos will far outpace sales,” he said. Mike ProulxForrester Vice President, Director of Research.
On the advertising side, Meta lost its accreditation from the Media Rating Council, a non-profit organization that sets industry standards on brand safety, after the company decided to withdraw from the organization’s annual audits. Certification indicates to advertisers that the content on the platform that their ads may appear next to will not be harmful to their brand. Meta received accreditation just four months before it was stripped.
Analysts were optimistic that losing accreditation would not ultimately hurt Meta’s ability to attract advertisers.
“While this may raise eyebrows among advertisers, it will not stop them from investing in Meta given its significant audience reach and brand adoption,” Proulx said. “Brands will ignore potential brand safety risks as long as their metamedia investments continue to perform.”