Meta Bets on AI Shopping as Capex Moves Toward $135B – ADWEEK

$58.1 billion: Meta’s Q4 2024 ad revenue, up 24% year-over-year. Overall revenue was $59.89 billion, also up 24% year-over-year.
18%: The year-over-year increase in ad impressions delivered across Meta’s apps.
6%: The average increase in price per ad year-over-year.
3.5 billion: Number of people using at least one of Meta’s apps daily. 
$955 million: Reality Labs revenue, down 12% year-over-year.
30%: The year-over-year increase in Instagram reels watch time in the U.S.
$115 to $135 billion: Investment in capital expenditures in 2026.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg looks to leverage more AI agents, saying “there’s a big delta” between people who use, and don’t use agents. Zuckerberg said an agent’s ability to see “unique context” makes Meta’s tech “valuable.”
Meta said it’s working to more tightly connect large language models with the recommendation systems that power Facebook, Instagram, Threads as well as its advertising business. Those efforts extend to “agentic shopping” surfacing across feeds and apps like WhatsApp.
This, alongside new media formats Zuckerberg described as “immersive and interactive,” are made possible by advances in AI. He pointed to smart glasses as the clearest expression of that vision, saying Meta is directing the bulk of its Reality Labs investment toward glasses and wearables. Losses at the unit are expected to be similar to last year and likely at their peak, Zuckerberg said, with losses set to narrow gradually as the company continues to execute on its long-term strategy.
Meta said capital expenditures totaled $22.1 billion in the fourth quarter and warned of a sharp increase in 2026, guiding to $115–$135 billion as it ramps up investments in AI and data centers.
Still, ads are still going to be how Meta primarily makes money, Zuckerberg said. Meta is continuing to roll out its AI business assistant, expanding access to more advertisers in the coming months, said Susan Li, Meta’s CFO. 
The push comes as Meta expands its ad footprint. This month, Meta began rolling out ads on Threads globally, and the company is running two Super Bowl spots to promote its Meta Oakley AI glasses.
Behind the scenes, Meta has been ramping up AI infrastructure, including a major data center build-out to keep pace with rivals such as OpenAI and Google. In 2025, Meta also overhauled its AI organization, investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI to hire founder Alexandr Wang and several senior engineers. More recently, the company named Dina Powell McCormick as president and vice chair and acquired Manus, a Singapore-based developer of general-purpose AI agents.
“I don’t think video is the ultimate kind of final format,” Zuckerberg said during the earnings call. “We’re going to get more formats that are more interactive and immersive, and you’re going to get them in your feeds. You can imagine being able to easily through a prompt create a world, or create a game and be able to share that. There’s definitely a version of the future, where you see a video that you see you can tap on and jump into it.”
Trishla is an Adweek staff reporter covering AI and tech.
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