Meta’s third-quarter profit surges 35% reflecting strong ad revenue and its AI push WSOC TV [Video]

Meta Platforms Inc. posted stronger-than-expected third-quarter results on Wednesday fueled by its advertising revenue growth and its push to incorporate artificial intelligence.

But the Instagram and Facebook parent company warned that it expects a “significant acceleration” in infrastructure spending next year as it continues to pour money into developing AI.

Nearly all of Meta’s revenue comes from advertising on its platforms, so a slight shortfall in user numbers also put a dent in an otherwise strong quarter. Meta said it’s “family daily active people” — that is the number of users who signed into at least one of its apps (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatApp and Threads) in a day — was 3.29 billion on average for September. Analysts had expected 3.31 billion.

“The miss in its user metric, daily active people, is concerning, as Meta will need to squeeze more revenue out of its existing users as growth slows,” said …