Meta's Susan Li: enterprise AI not locked down as Meta Enterprise Platform nears

Meta's enterprise push comes as its advertising business is still growing strongly, with third-quarter revenue up 26% year over year to $64.6 billion. That cash flow is funding an aggressive AI buildout: capital expenditures including finance lease principal payments reached $34.9 billion in the third quarter, up from $19.4 billion a year earlier, and Meta raised the lower end of its full-year capex forecast to $135 billion from $130 billion while maintaining the upper end at $145 billion. Total expenses rose 68% year over year to $51.6 billion, reflecting higher infrastructure spending, third-party AI token costs and a $9.9 billion charge related to an August agreement with multiple state attorneys general.

Against that spending, Li positioned enterprise AI as a long-term opportunity set that will "develop over multiple years," with Meta intending to scale investment behind "demonstrated customer demand and product market fit." The company also created a Class C stock share class to help fund the AI buildout, pay employee stock compensation and fund acquisitions, Fortune reported. On the consumer side, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse personal agents within six weeks of launch, with about 25% using them on any given day. Meta expects fourth-quarter revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion, compared with analysts' consensus estimate of $73.75 billion.