Mark Zuckerberg took a break from his VR dojo and mansion shopping in D.C. to remind Wall Street that, despite hemorrhaging money on the metaverse, Meta can still crank out ad revenue like it’s 2016. The company’s Q4 earnings didn’t just beat expectations—they bodied them. Revenue surged 21% year-over-year to $48.4 billion, while net income jumped 49% to $20.8 billion. For those not into math, that’s $6.77 per share expected versus $8.02 delivered.

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, if there’s one thing Meta knows how to do, it’s squeeze cash out of its 3.35 billion daily active users (and yes, that number is still absurd no matter how many times we see it). The ad biz was running laps around expectations, proving that even in a world of TikTok trends and BeReal check-ins, Zuckerberg’s empire of Instagram filters and Facebook Marketplace scamming is still the MVP. Translation: Meta’s AI-powered ad targeting is a legit ATM. 

What’s more is that Meta hit a new milestone in Q4: $60 billion in cumulative losses for Reality Labs since its inception in 2020. Let that sink in. The division responsible for the Quest headsets and Ray-Ban AR glasses dropped another $5 billion last quarter, and Zuck is still out here telling us that 2025 will be a “pivotal year” for the metaverse. Spoiler: The spending will continue until morale improves LOL. 

(Source: CNBC) 

To his credit, Meta owns 70% of the VR market, but considering how niche the market still is, that’s like bragging about being the tallest kid in the kindergarten class. Investors are understandably less optimistic, especially since the metaverse has yet to produce anything other than hilarious memes about legless avatars.

Of course, Zuck didn’t spend the whole call talking about the metaverse. He pivoted hard to AI, hyping Meta’s chatbot achievements and promising to throw up to $65 billion at AI development this year. For reference, that’s more than the GDP of Luxembourg, and Zuck’s willing to burn it on AI infrastructure to stay competitive in the arms race against the likes of OpenAI and Google.

(Source: IBD) 

Additionally, when asked about DeepSeek, Zuck spun it as a win for Meta, pointing out that their Llama models have also gone the open-source route. Which is cool and all, but the real question is how much did you spend to develop your Llama models? Open-source means absolutely nothing if it costs 10x more than $5 million (which is apparently DeepSeeks golden milestone). 

But alas, Meta’s Q4 earnings show that while Zuckerberg is hellbent on his metaverse/AI fever dream, the company’s bread and butter—ads—remains a cash cow (with shares popping to a peak of 5.79% on the announcement). But with Reality Labs burning through billions and AI spending hitting stratospheric levels, Meta’s ability to keep Wall Street happy long-term is still very much TBD.

(Source: Giphy) 

For now, let’s just hope the ad revenue fountain never dries up—because as of right now, it’s the only thing carrying the team to the finish line. In the meantime, keep an eye on Meta throughout the day, and place your bets accordingly. As always, stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time…

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Stocks.News holds positions in Meta and Google as mentioned in the article.