Meta Leans on Improved Ad Business to Fuel Massive AI Spending

Meta Platforms Inc.’s better-than-expected sales outlook helped ease Wall Street concerns about plans for unprecedented spending on artificial intelligence this year.

The social networking giant topped projections for holiday quarter revenue and gave a strong forecast for the current period during its earnings report Wednesday. Improvements in its online advertising business are making it possible for Meta to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on AI infrastructure. Meta’s shares jumped more than 11% in extended trading.