Meta released its latest earnings update on January 28, 2026, covering fourth-quarter 2025 results and full-year 2025. The headline is simple: revenue jumped, profit rose, and Meta’s ad machine kept expanding. At the same time, expenses grew even faster, and Meta told investors to expect a heavy spending year in 2026.
Meta also tied its 2026 plans to a bigger push into AI infrastructure and technical hiring. That push shows up clearly in its expense and capital spending outlook.
Key financial figures you should know
Q4 2025 vs Q4 2024
- Revenue: $59.893B, up 24%
- Operating income: $24.745B, up 6%
- Operating margin: 41%, down from 48%
- Net income: $22.768B, up 9%
- Diluted EPS: $8.88, up 11%
Full year 2025 vs full year 2024
- Revenue: $200.966B, up 22%
- Operating income: $83.276B, up 20%
- Operating margin: 41%, down from 42%
- Net income: $60.458B, down 3%
- Diluted EPS: $23.49, down 2%
What stands out: revenue grew fast, but costs grew faster. That cost pressure explains why the operating margin fell sharply in Q4 even though operating income increased.
What powered revenue: users and ads moved up together
Meta pointed to steady growth across its Family of Apps, and the metrics show why ad revenue held up.
- Family daily active people (DAP): 3.58B in December 2025 average, up 7%
- Ad impressions: up 18% in Q4, up 12% for the full year
- Average price per ad: up 6% in Q4, up 9% for the full year
When you see impressions up and pricing up, you usually get a strong quarter. That is what happened here.
Cash, buybacks, and the spending picture
Meta ended 2025 with a large cash pile and kept returning capital, even as it spent heavily on infrastructure.
- Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities: $81.59B
- Q4 capex including finance leases: $22.14B
- Full year capex including finance leases: $72.22B
- Share repurchases: $26.26B for the full year
- Dividends and equivalents: $5.32B for the full year
- Free cash flow: $14.08B in Q4, $43.59B for the full year
- Long term debt: $58.74B
- Headcount: 78,865, up 6%
The mix tells you what Meta wants in 2026. Keep funding the core business while scaling infrastructure.
The tax note that changed the full year story
Meta said its full year 2025 income tax provision reflected the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in Q3 2025. It reported a 30% effective tax rate for the year and also explained how the rate would look without a specific valuation allowance charge.
Meta’s 2026 outlook: strong revenue guidance, massive capex plans
Meta’s CFO outlook spelled out a big step up in investment.
Q1 2026 guidance
- Revenue: $53.5B to $56.5B
- Meta assumes foreign exchange adds about a 4% tailwind to year over year revenue growth.
Full year 2026 guidance
- Total expenses: $162B to $169B
- Infrastructure costs drive most of the growth, with employee compensation next due to technical hiring.
- Capex including finance leases: $115B to $135B
- Meta expects 2026 operating income to exceed 2025 operating income.
- Expected 2026 tax rate: 13% to 16%
Meta also flagged legal and regulatory risk, including youth related scrutiny and trials scheduled in the United States that could lead to material losses.
Meta closed 2025 with strong ad driven growth and expanding engagement. It also signaled that 2026 will bring a sharp rise in spending, especially on AI and infrastructure. That balance between growth and cost control will define how Meta performs this year.
How Meta and Apple stack up, and why the rivalry shows up in earnings season
Meta and Apple do not compete in the same core business. Meta runs an ad empire, while Apple sells hardware and services. Still, they collide on platforms, devices, and the next wave of consumer AI.
Start with hardware and mixed reality. Meta sells Quest headsets and pushes smart glasses through partnerships, while Apple sells Vision Pro and continues to invest in spatial computing. When Meta talks about Reality Labs costs and device demand, investors often compare that trajectory to Apple’s approach, which ties hardware to its broader ecosystem.
Then there’s talent. Reports in 2025 said Meta hired senior AI leaders and researchers who previously worked at Apple, including members connected to Apple’s foundation-model efforts. That matters because AI headcount and compensation show up in operating expenses, and because it signals how aggressively Meta wants to build out its AI teams.
Finally, watch the timing. Apple’s first earnings call of 2026 lands the next day, on Thursday, January 29, 2026, with the conference call scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. That back-to-back schedule makes it easier to compare how each company talks about AI, devices, and consumer demand in the same week.
You can stream the webcast through Meta’s Investor Relations events page.
