{"id":615781,"date":"2026-04-30T18:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615781\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:57:13","slug":"meta-stock-loses-175-billion-after-ai-expense-estimate-shakes-shareholders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/615781\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Stock Loses $175 Billion After AI Expense Estimate Shakes Shareholders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Meta Platforms (META) shares dropped roughly 10% on Thursday, erasing about $175 billion in market value. A higher 2026 capital expenditure forecast of $125 billion to $145 billion triggered the selloff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The decline marked the stock&#8217;s largest single-day percentage drop in roughly six months. It came despite Q1 2026 earnings that exceeded Wall Street estimates on both revenue and profit.<\/p>\n<p>      Capex Hike Spooks META Investors    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">As of this writing, META stock was trading for $606.43, down by almost 10% in the last 24 hours, wiping out up top $175 billion from its market cap today alone.<\/p>\n<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/da5c38f7d1adcc382bb9d990f3eaf6a4.png\" alt=\"META Stock Performance\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"560\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> META Stock Performance. Source: TradingView      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The new spending range sits roughly 7% above the previous January guidance of $115 billion to $135 billion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Chief Financial Officer Susan Li attributed the increase to higher memory-chip pricing. She also cited additional data center costs tied to artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth downgraded Meta to Neutral and cut the bank&#8217;s price target to $725 from $825. The note flagged intensifying full-stack AI competition and a more challenging path to returns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Q1 capex alone reached $19.8 billion, in line with the broader Big Tech race in AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>      Earnings Beat Overshadowed    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Meta reported revenue of $56.31 billion, up 33% year over year, the strongest quarterly growth since 2021. Net income reached $26.8 billion, or $10.44 per diluted share. An $8 billion one-time tax benefit tied to U.S. Treasury R&amp;D guidance lifted that figure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Ad revenue stayed strong as AI-powered content recommendations boosted engagement on Reels and video.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Yet the reaction echoed earlier sell-offs after prior Meta capex hikes. The pattern repeatedly overshadows strong fundamentals with spending fears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta Platforms (META) shares dropped roughly 10% on Thursday, erasing about $175 billion in market value. A higher&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,226985,1683,206133,267239,38120],"class_list":["post-615781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gene-munster","tag-meta-platforms","tag-meta-stock","tag-meta-stock-performance","tag-susan-li"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}