Because of an $18 billion legal settlement with nearly all US states, but its profits took a hit. As per AFP, Meta beat investor expectations for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday.
The company reported $9.86 billion in profits from July to September, according to AFP. This was almost 50 percent below what investors expected. Meta said the drop was caused by a $9.9 billion charge linked to the settlement. As per AFP, a judge ruled that Meta must pay $25 billion to New Mexico. The jury found that Meta broke the state’s consumer protection law more than 43 million times.
The fine was issued by state court Judge Francis Mathew, according to Bloomberg. This came after a jury found last month that the company had deceived users in a case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. It is among the largest verdicts in US legal history. This was based on widely seen misleading statements by the company and its top executives about how it handled hate speech and user data.
In the September quarter, it spent $35 billion on capital expenditures. Investors had expected $41 billion, so the spending was lower than expected. As per AFP, Meta raised its spending estimate for the whole year to $145 billion in July. Earlier, the estimate was $130 billion. This is nearly double what the company spent in 2025.
Meta has also been spending heavily to build up its artificial intelligence (AI) abilities.
