Meta has posted a 26% increase in revenue to US$64.6 billion for the September quarter, as rising advertising demand and improved ad pricing strengthened its core business while the company expanded its artificial intelligence investments.

According to the company’s latest results, the number of advertising impressions across its platforms climbed 10% year-on-year, while the average price per advertisement rose 14%, highlighting the continued contribution of its social media business to growth.

Meanwhile, Meta’s workforce declined by 15% to 66,775 employees, following its earlier decision to cut about 10% of staff and close approximately 6,000 vacant positions. The company has linked its drive for greater efficiency to investments in AI tools that it says enable employees to accomplish more with fewer resources.

Commenting on the performance, founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Meta had reached significant milestones in its ambition to deliver personal superintelligence, including the launch of Muse and Muse Wonder, which he described as the company’s first frontier models. He added that the company’s investments were generating returns, with its core business remaining strong and progress accelerating across its operations.

For the December quarter, Meta projected revenue of between US$73 billion and US$76 billion, signalling expectations of further growth. However, chief financial officer Susan Li said the company was still developing its budget and capacity plans for the coming year.

Li explained that Meta intended to maintain substantial investment in its established business and emerging AI initiatives. She also noted that existing computing capacity, alongside infrastructure scheduled to become available, would allow the company to distribute resources among AI model training, core business expansion and new product development.

Furthermore, she said AI investments were already generating additional advertising revenue by improving user engagement, refining content recommendations and making advertising monetisation more efficient.

In Australia and New Zealand, Meta’s regional managing director, Will Easton, said the global performance reflected the strength of the company’s core operations. He noted that businesses across both markets were increasingly using Meta’s AI tools to improve productivity and support growth.

Easton also indicated that Muse was expected to arrive in Australia in the coming weeks, following strong interest in the United States. He added that several major Australian brands had expressed interest in Muse and enterprise-level integrations involving WhatsApp business agents.

Despite the company’s financial gains and growing AI ambitions, however, analysts have cautioned that early enthusiasm for its new products does not guarantee long-term commercial success. Emarketer senior analyst Minda Smiley said Muse had brought Meta’s AI ambitions into sharper focus during the quarter, but warned that the company still faced significant challenges in turning initial interest into sustained adoption.

She argued that download figures alone would not establish the product’s viability, pointing instead to how people use the AI agent, the information they are willing to share and whether they would pay for its services as important factors in determining its long-term business model. Smiley also highlighted competition, security concerns and the possibility that consumers may not yet be ready to embrace personal AI agents as potential obstacles to wider adoption.

Additionally, she pointed to Meta’s continuing legal and reputational challenges, including a reported US$25 billion penalty linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as a reminder of the scrutiny the company faces. She warned that privacy and safety concerns could intensify as AI agents become more widespread, potentially undermining public confidence in Meta’s products.

Consequently, while stronger advertising performance and rising AI-driven revenue are supporting Meta’s expansion, the company must still demonstrate that its substantial AI spending can produce sustainable products, retain user trust and deliver lasting commercial returns.