Meta reports Q3 revenue up 26% YoY to $51.2B, vs. $49.4B est., net income down 83% YoY to $2.7B, and family DAP up 8% to 3.54B for September; META drops 12%+

Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025.

Meta 2025-10-30

Context & Ripple Effects

Meta entered this period after a 2024 run in which its prior Q3 revenue and net income both grew while daily use also expanded. This report breaks that alignment: audience growth and top-line growth continued, but earnings did not.

The subsequent Q4 earnings recovery shows that the Q3 profit decline was not the direction of revenue or user growth. It nevertheless made the durability of Meta's profit conversion a central question for investors.

First-order effects

Meta beat the reported revenue estimate and reached 3.54 billion family daily active people, but the 83% net-income decline drove an immediate repricing, with META down more than 12%.
Revenue grew materially faster than family DAP, making monetization of Meta's existing user base—not user growth alone—the near-term measure of commercial progress.

Second-order effects

Future results face a higher burden to show that revenue growth can translate into durable earnings growth; the later Q4 rebound in net income became especially important against that backdrop.
At Meta's scale, advertisers and investors will increasingly focus on revenue per active device and the quality of incremental revenue, rather than treating larger daily reach as sufficient evidence of financial performance.

Third-order effects

The quarter reinforces a broader platform-market distinction between engagement scale and profit conversion: large networks can keep expanding revenue and daily use while still facing sharp valuation pressure when earnings diverge.
If this pattern persists, capital allocation and disclosure around the investments required to sustain monetization will become more consequential than headline audience growth alone; this report does not establish what caused the profit decline.

The trend: Major consumer platforms are being judged increasingly on how efficiently they convert vast, relatively mature user bases into revenue and earnings, not simply on continued audience expansion.

Discussion

@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META call just wrapped up. I think I figured out why $META stock is down 9%. Expenses are growing faster than revenue, driven by third party cloud. The last two years it's been the flip story. March revenue up 16% vs. expenses up 9%, June revenue up 22% vs. expenses up 12%. …
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO: Worst-case scenario of overbuilding compute is manageable “The very worst case would be that we effectively have just pre-built for a couple of years, in which case, of course, there would be some loss and depreciation, but we'd grow into that and use it over time.”
@ryenotberben Scott Jones on x
If i'm a PM I may have been long $meta thinking they would crush the print and i could sell for a good win tomorrow. As is, think this stock gonna be real hard to own for next 3 mths. Multiple shrinker not expander.
@adrianweckler Adrian Weckler on x
Social media usage continues to grow, Meta's latest results suggest. The Facebook and Instagram company now has over 3.5bn daily users [image]
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO in concluding the Q3 25 call: “I think it's pretty early, but I think we're seeing the returns in the core business that's giving us a lot of confidence that we should be investing a lot more. And we want to make sure that we're not underinvesting.” [image]
@stockmarketnerd @stockmarketnerd on x
$META is so clearly going to enter the public cloud space if they end up overbuilding on capacity. I guess I'm speculating but I don't think it's a reach. [image]
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO: Reels revenue has reached an impressive $50B annual run rate “Video is a particular bright spot, with video time spent on Instagram up more than 30% since last year. And as video continues to grow across our apps, Reels now has an annual run rate of over $50B.”
@theaustinlyons Austin Lyons on x
$META's 2026 plans to continue spending with neoclouds like $CRWV [image]
@theaustinlyons Austin Lyons on x
Zuck: We need more compute for MSL, for our core family of apps ads and recommendations, and for new products. Others are even *asking to rent our excess capacity* but we don't have any. $META [image]
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CFO: “We currently expect 2025 capital expenditures...to be in the range of $70-72B, increased from our prior outlook of $66-72B...our current expectation is that capital expenditures dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than 2025” [image]
@richlightshed @richlightshed on x
Instagram Reels advertising on track to be larger than the entire US television ad industry Zuck just said Reels revenues is now over $50 billion annually $META US TV advertising ~$65 billion and shrinking. [image]
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CFO: “Q3 total family of apps revenue was $50.8 billion, up 26% YoY....The total number of ad impressions served across our services increased 14%. Impression growth was healthy across all regions, driven by engagement and user growth, particularly on video services. The [i…
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
Another new thesis. Meta won't be able to compete with @OpenAI as it enters consumer electronics. The Meta/Raybans debacle and the way it treats the community and how it laid off 600 AI workers tells me it doesn't have the leadership that it will take to compete in the future.
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO on persistent underestimation of AI compute demand despite aggressive infrastructure investments. “To date, we keep on seeing this pattern where we build some amount of infrastructure to what we think is an aggressive assumption, and then we keep on having more demand […
@tanayj Tanay Jaipuria on x
Today, Meta just reported its first $50B+ revenue quarter and Alphabet its first $100B+ revenue quarter. Insane businesses.
@theaustinlyons Austin Lyons on x
Zuck says $META core business is perennially starved of compute, so accelerating infra build out stands to boost core business too [image]
@stephanie_link Stephanie Link on x
$META: I am still a LT fan but credibility of “years” of efficiencies just went out the window w higher capex raise. Pos for LT but yet again - balance growth, monetization, expenses to find operating leverage. Operating leverage wins LT.
@beth_kindig Beth Kindig on x
Meta $META also slightly raised its capex guidance for 2025 to $70-72 billion, up from $66-72 billion previously, while adding that it expects capex dollar growth to be “notably larger in 2026” versus 2025. $NVDA $AVGO $AMD
@jrouldz Dr J Rould on x
I have not added to $META in years but my gut tells me this is a buying opportunity Falling on one time tax expense? Or there is more to the picture that I am missing? 🤔
@convertbond Lawrence McDonald on x
Zuck's $META the old “one time charge” during a $2T Capex arms race trick. Former cash cow, becomes a cash incineration machine. [image]
@wheelieinvestor @wheelieinvestor on x
Wtf happened with EPS I'm confused $META [image]
@qcapital2020 @qcapital2020 on x
$META BACK TO LOWS OF OCTOBER 14TH 2025 THIS IS HORRIBLE, ZUCK RUGGED US WHAT IS THIS NON-CASH EXPENSE, ANY ACCOUNTANTS OUT THERE
@ericjhonsa Eric Jhonsa on x
Unlike $AMZN, $MSFT or $GOOG, $META doesn't have a public cloud biz and is spending a ton (both via capex and R&D) to train a frontier LLM that hasn't kept up with rivals in evals. That makes it a unique case among the top hyperscalers when it comes to debating AI spending ROI.
@stockmarketnerd @stockmarketnerd on x
$META Family of Apps generating north of $50B in quarterly revenue & growing at a 26% Y/Y clip. Nearly 50% segment EBIT margin. So impressive. Feel free to freak out about after-hours earnings volatility. Preferably in all capital letters.
@jbulltard1 @jbulltard1 on x
this AI stuff is so dumb Zuck is repeating the 2022 sinking of a great money machine in $META with wasteful spend, the metaverse sucked and AI is nearly as dumb with all this Capex as investors tell him they're sick of it
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
It looks like Zuck is most bullish on AI compared to Nadella, Jassy and Pichai based on Capex and spend on third party cloud for next year. $META, $GOOG, $AMZN, $MSFT
@divestech Dan Ives on x
We want Meta to increase Capex and they did. Any sell off is short sighted. Zuck is wartime CEO and leading Meta into next stage of AI Revolution. Increase in Capex gonna happen across tech and bullish for Nvidia, AMD, and cloud players. This the fuel for AI Revolution 🔥🏆🐂
@dorialexander Alexander Doria on x
please help me budget my slop company is dying >hosting 100$ >bots 200$ >four ai researchers 15.9B >ai stepmom redesign 200$
@stockmktnewz Evan on x
FACEBOOK $META JUST REPORTED EARNINGS EPS of $1.05 missing expectations of $6.66🔴 Revenue of $51.2B beating expectations of $49.4B🟢 Meta said it had a $15.9 Billion one time expense which without that their EPS woulf have been $7.25 which would have been a beat “We expect a [imag…
@thegarpinvestor Ethan Tucker on x
$META earnings look just fine to me. Revenue growing 26% from that big a base is just absurd. Income number is due to a one time non-cash event. Not a concern. Zuck keeps it rolling. [image]
@rihardjarc Rihard Jarc on x
$META earnings: - Revenue $51.2B up 26% YoY - Family daily active people 3.54B up 8% YoY - 2025 CapEx up to $70-$72B from prior outlook of $66-$72B. As I was expecting Zuck dropping some heavy costs for 2026: “As a result, our current expectation is that capital expenditures
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
Good news for $NVDA. Street is looking for $META to increase capex next year by 40%. My guess is it will be up 60%. They will give more detailed guide for next year in three months. All they said was it would be will be “an aggressive and significant” increase.
@holysmokas Jeremy Lefebvre on x
$META massive beats. Stock is down 7% right now but this dip will be bought right up. Meta is easy money. $1,000+ incoming.
@mindset4money_x @mindset4money_x on x
Dont let EPS drop concern you... It was a one time $16B non cash tax expense. $META business is pouring in cash. [image]
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META guided revenue up 3% for December (looking at the high end of the range). The guide would have been up around 4% if not for the revenue timing around Reality Labs.
@stocksavvyshay Shay Boloor on x
$META Q3 EARNINGS • Sales $51.2B vs Est. $49.4B • EPS $1.05 vs Est. $6.67 FY25 Guidance • Sales $117B vs Est. $116B • CapEx $71B vs Est. $69B Meta took a one time $15.9B non cash tax charge which means EPS would have been $7.25 and a clear beat without it. [image]
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
$META call is live. Zuck says he will overbuild for the most optimistic case around Superintelligence. That means they will likely spend at a rate faster than Google, Microsoft and Amazon. That's also how the Street is modeling our Capex for those companies with Meta up around…
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
A small but powerful example of why $META is next to impossible to slow. Daily users were up 7.6% y/y reaching 3.54B people. Thats 43% of the world population. . More impressive is that y/y growth has been accelerating. Sep- 7.6% Jun - 6.4% Mar- 5.9% Dec 24 - 5.0% Sep 24 - 4.…
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
Metric on how addictive $META products are. They say there was double digit growth in US time spent on Facebook/Instagram y/y.
@martinshkreli Martin Shkreli on x
META: As a result, our current expectation is that capital expenditures dollar growth will be notably larger in 2026 than 2025. holy shit $NVDA 😂😂
@p_remarks @p_remarks on x
How funny will it be if the sentiment on capex flips right as amzn is ramping capacity to catch up
@stockmktnewz Evan on x
3.54 Billion people use at least one of Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp EVERY SINGLE DAY There are estimated to be ~8.2B people on Earth That means ~43% of the population of the ENTIRE world uses a $META owned product every day 🤯 [image]
@ericjhonsa Eric Jhonsa on x
$META revises its 2025 capex guide to $70B-$72B from $66B-$72B and says it now expects capex dollar growth to be “notably larger in 2026 than 2025” (compares with a prior guide of similar dollar growth). Suggests 2026 capex will be soundly above $100B (consensus is at $98B). [ima…
@munster_gene Gene Munster on x
I don't' understand why $META is down 7%. They effectively guided Dec revenue up by 3%. The actual mid point was $57.5B vs Street at $57.25. More importantly, the high end of the guide was $59B, which is likely where the revenue will come in for December, that's where the 3% g…
@ericjhonsa Eric Jhonsa on x
I'm bullish on AI infra, but if one wants to make a bear case, I think it's that certain spenders ( $META, xAI, sovereigns, etc.) have very uncertain ROIs. Much stronger argument IMO than saying that overall AI end-demand/revenue isn't growing fast.
@danielnewmanuv Daniel Newman on x
$META is making the necessary investments. Great quarter outside of the 1x adjustment. Beat on all key metrics. 💪🏻
@zerohedge @zerohedge on x
This is a problem: previously META was richly rewarded for coming up with bonkers capex guidance; not this time. Did shareholders finally realize they'd rather got the $ as buybacks than give it to Jensen
@danielnewmanuv Daniel Newman on x
$MSFT $MSFT $GOOGL $NOW all validated AI demand this quarter. Meta's one time charge is being used to wag the dog. But what we are seeing is strong growth in cloud, enterprise software, and advertising. AND we are seeing capex numbers go up because all of these companies need …
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CEO: “...our new Meta Ray-Ban display glasses....They sold out in almost every store within 48 hours, with demo slots fully booked through the end of next month. So we're going to have to invest in increasing manufacturing and selling more of those.”
@counternotions Kontra on x
CNBC: “[Meta's] Reality Labs division has now recorded over $70 billion in cumulative losses since late 2020, underscoring the high costs of building VR, AR and other consumer hardware.” $META down 7.18% after hours.
@contrariancurse @contrariancurse on x
Makes no sense what the flying fuck $META is spending all of this money on. You've spent 70b on reality labs to make the RayBan Vision? Are you serious? And people are critical of Apple and their hardware efforts? Give me a break
@thetranscript_ @thetranscript_ on x
$META CFO: “Our outlook reflects an expectation for continued strong ad revenue growth, partially offset by lower year-over-year Reality Labs revenue in the fourth quarter. The anticipated reduction in Reality Labs revenue is due to us lapping the introduction of Quest 3S in the
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
this unremarkable knob routinely sets unholy gobs of money on fire to pretend his boomer sneaker ad company is innovative and interesting, and the press just endlessly normalizes it
@glinden Greg Linden on bluesky
Zuck spent five years and $70 billion dollars to build a business that loses $4.4 billion/year to create only $470 million in revenue. So bad you can't give it away, I guess. Five years is a long time get something this small and crappy.
@robertchilver.com Rob Chilver on bluesky
Changing the company name has really paid off then... [embedded post]
@scriban @scriban on bluesky
Pretty sure there isn't a human being, either alive or in history, who has burned as much money as Mark Zuckerberg. $70BB is Hurricane Andrew-levels of destruction. [embedded post]
@norbizness @norbizness on bluesky
We can now quantify the economic effect of not wanting to look like a complete dickweed ($4.4 billion)
r/business r on reddit
Meta's Reality Labs posts $4.4 billion loss in third quarter
r/technology r on reddit
Meta's Reality Labs posts $4.4 billion loss in third quarter

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