Catenaa, Wednesday, November 05, 2025- Meta investors are concerned about spending on AI by the Facebook parent company, as the stock has its worst four-day run since 2022.
Facebook’s parent posted results last week that beat expectations on key metrics. But Wall Street’s focus was on capital expenditures, which the company said would be as much as $72 billion this year and “notably larger” in 2026.
Then, on the earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg downplayed concerns that Meta might be overspending on things like its Superintelligence Labs group, saying “it’s the right strategy to aggressively front-load building capacity.”
Now Meta shares just posted their worst four-day run since November 2022, falling almost 17% and wiping out $307 billion in market value. Not coincidentally, the 2022 selloff was also triggered by investors questioning its spending plans, ultimately sending the stock down 77% from a 2021 peak.
The stock rose by 0.8% on Wednesday. Meta’s stock remains up 9.3% this year. That’s because until very recently, spending large sums on AI wasn’t seen as a negative. In fact, companies were rewarded for it because it showed they were staying competitive in the evolving tech landscape.
Zuckerberg has long touted how AI is leading to improved ad targeting and engagement. But with spending continuing to rise, investors are getting skittish about the outlays without more concrete signs of the payoffs.
Meta isn’t the only example of investors getting cold feet about AI spending. Microsoft also fell on its results, although the drop was milder as investors see a clearer path from spending to growth in its Azure cloud-computing business.
Unlike Microsoft, to say nothing of Amazon.com. or Alphabet, which rallied on its results, Meta is missing an enterprise-focused business like Azure that could benefit from AI’s proliferation.
