Meta Q1 2026: $56.3B Revenue Up 33%, Net Income $26.8B — Capex Raised to $145B and Stock Drops 7%

Meta on April 29, 2026 reported first-quarter revenue of $56.3 billion, up 33% year over year and the company's fastest revenue-growth quarter since 2021. Net income climbed 61% to $26.8 billion, but shares fell roughly 7% in extended trading after CFO Susan Li raised the 2026 capital-expenditure guide to a range of $125–$145 billion, up from a prior $115–$135 billion.

What Happened

The headline numbers were a clean beat on every line. Family of Apps advertising revenue came in at $55.0 billion, also up 33%, with both ad impressions (+19%) and average price per ad (+12%) accelerating simultaneously — what Wall Street treats as the cleanest possible advertising-health signal. GAAP earnings per share were $10.44, well above the $7.31 adjusted figure analysts focused on once an $8.03 billion one-time tax benefit was excluded.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg framed the quarter around a new initiative: We had a milestone quarter with strong momentum across our apps and the release of our first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. We're on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people. Meta also said daily Ray-Ban smart-glasses users tripled year over year, while Family daily active people (DAP) reached 3.56 billion in March 2026 — a 4% increase, but slightly below consensus, which contributed to the after-hours sell-off.

Key Details

• Revenue: $56.3 billion (+33% YoY, +29% in constant currency) — fastest growth quarter since 2021.
• Net income: $26.8 billion (+61% YoY); diluted EPS of $10.44, lifted by an $8.03B one-time tax benefit.
• Family of Apps ads: $55.0 billion (+33% YoY); ad impressions +19%, average price per ad +12%.
• Reality Labs: losses continued, but Zuckerberg said daily Ray-Ban Meta smart-glasses users tripled year over year.
• 2026 capex guide: raised to $125–$145 billion (from $115–$135B); cited higher component pricing and additional data-center costs for AI capacity.
• Q2 2026 revenue guidance: $58–$61 billion.
• Daily active people: 3.56 billion across the Family of Apps in March 2026 (+4% YoY).
• Stock reaction: shares fell about 7% in after-hours trading on the capex raise and the soft DAP print.

What Developers and Users Are Saying

Reaction across investor and developer threads was mixed. Bulls on the Motley Fool earnings call recap and Sherwood News emphasized that ad-impression and price growth are accelerating together, which historically signals durable demand rather than a one-quarter pop. Bears, including Fortune, focused on the math: Meta is now guiding to spend nearly as much in a single year on capex as it did in 2024 and 2025 combined, with most of the AI revenue tied to its custom MTIA accelerator still a 2027 story. On developer-leaning forums, attention quickly turned to the "first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs" line — a re-branding of Meta's AI research org and a signal that future Llama-style releases will sit under the new umbrella.

What This Means for Developers

Three concrete implications for builders. First, Meta's $145 billion capex ceiling is largely earmarked for AI training and inference capacity — open-weights model releases out of Meta Superintelligence Labs are likely to keep coming and to keep getting bigger, which keeps cost-of-inference pressure on every closed model. Second, the MTIA chip, co-developed with Broadcom on a 2-nanometer process, is explicitly aimed at lowering inference cost and reducing Nvidia dependency, but Meta confirmed it remains a 2027 deployment story — Nvidia stays the primary 2026 beneficiary. Third, the Ray-Ban smart-glasses installed base is real and growing fast — developers building wearable-first or on-device assistant experiences should treat that surface as worth targeting, not a side bet.

What's Next

Meta guided Q2 2026 revenue to $58–$61 billion and reiterated that operating expenses will rise meaningfully through the year as the AI buildout continues. The next major signal is whether the second-quarter capex run-rate confirms or softens the upper end of the $145 billion range, and whether Meta Superintelligence Labs ships a follow-up model release before the company's fall hardware event.

Sources

• Meta Investor Relations — Q1 2026 Press Release — primary source, all reported figures.
• CNBC — Meta Q1 2026 earnings report — headline numbers and DAP miss.
• Fortune — "Meta just bumped its 2026 capex forecast up to $145B" — capex framing.
• Sherwood News — Earnings and revenue beat with a huge capex bill — investor reaction.
• The Motley Fool — Q1 2026 earnings call transcript — Zuckerberg quote.
• Variety — Meta Q1 revenue soars 33% — context on profits and headcount.