Meta looks to report fastest revenue growth since 2021

meta reports first-quarter earnings wednesday after the bell. analysts expect revenue of $55.45 billion, up 31% from a year ago — the fastest growth since 2021. earnings per share are estimated at $6.79. ceo mark zuckerberg has been pushing deeper into ai. in june, meta invested $14.3 billion in scale ai and hired its ceo alexandr wang to lead a revamped ai unit called meta superintelligence labs. earlier this month, meta debuted muse spark, its first proprietary foundation model. investors want a clearer monetization plan. meta's core ad business is still the growth engine. almost all revenue comes from ads. but spending is heavy: first-quarter capex is expected at $27.63 billion, with a full-year projection of $115–$135 billion. meta is also cutting headcount — it laid off about 8,000 employees last week, or 10% of its workforce, and stopped hiring for 6,000 open roles. reality labs is expected to post a $4.82 billion operating loss on $488.8 million in revenue.