Meta shares sink after it reveals spending plans

Shares in US tech giant Meta have fallen in US after-hours trading despite better-than-expected earnings.

The Facebook and Instagram owner said expenses would be higher in 2024 as it spends heavily on artificial intelligence (AI).

Its shares fell more than 15% after it said it expected to spend billions of dollars more than it had previously predicted in 2024.

Meta has been updating its ad-buying products with AI tools to boost earnings growth.

It has also been introducing more AI features on its social media platforms such as chat assistants.

The firm said it now expected to spend between $35bn and $40bn, (£28bn-32bn) in 2024, up from an earlier prediction of $30-$37bn.

Its shares fell despite it beating expectations on its earnings.

First quarter revenue rose 27% to $36.46bn, while analysts had expected earnings of $36.16bn.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said its spending plans were "aggressive".

She said Meta's "substantial investment" in AI has helped it get people to spend time on its platforms, so advertisers are willing to spend more money "in a time when digital advertising uncertainty remains rife".

More than 50 countries are due to have elections this year, she said, "which hugely increases uncertainty" and can spook advertisers.

She added that Meta's "fortunes are probably also being bolstered by TikTok’s uncertain future in the US".

Meta's rival has said it will fight an "unconstitutional" law that could result in TikTok being sold or banned in the US.

President Biden has signed into law a bill which gives the social media platform's Chinese owner, ByteDance, nine months to sell off the app or it will be blocked in the US.

Ms Lund-Yates said that "looking further ahead, the biggest risk [for Meta] remains regulatory".

Last year, Meta was fined €1.2bn (£1bn) by Ireland's data authorities for mishandling people's data when transferring it between Europe and the US.

And in February of this year, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg faced blistering criticism from US lawmakers and was pushed to apologise to families of victims of child sexual exploitation.

Ms Lund-Yates added that the firm has "more than enough resources to throw at legal challenges, but that doesn’t rule out the risks of ups and downs in market sentiment".