Meta Says It Will Continue Spending, as Growth Surges

For months, Meta and other big technology companies have spent heavily to build artificial intelligence technologies, which show no immediate signs of yielding profits. For months, the companies have also delivered a consistent message about the investments: Trust us.

On Wednesday, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, showed it was not changing course. The company said it had spent $8.5 billion in the second quarter on computing infrastructure for A.I., building the immersive world of the metaverse and other expenses, up 33.4 percent from a year earlier.

Meta also raised part of its spending forecast, saying its expenditures for the year would total $37 billion to $40 billion, up from a prior estimate of $35 billion to $40 billion.

“We’re in the business of building the best consumer and advertising experiences,” Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, said on a call with investors on Wednesday. “To do that, we need access to the leading technology and not be constrained by what competitors allow us to do.”

Revenue for the second quarter was $39.1 billion, up 22 percent from a year earlier and above Wall Street estimates of $38.3 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet. Profit was $13.5 billion, up 73 percent from $7.8 billion a year earlier.

Meta also signaled that its ad business remained strong. The company said it expected revenue of $38.5 billion to $41 billion for the current quarter, above Wall Street expectations of $39.3 billion.