Meta misses on user growth, warns of 2025 jump in AI spending

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, testifies during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis,” in Dirksen building on Wednesday, January 31, 2024.Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty ImagesMeta reported weaker-than-expected user numbers and warned of a significant acceleration in its infrastructure expenses in 2025 in its third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.The company’s stock price was down slightly in after-hours trading.Here are the results.Earnings per share: $6.03 vs. $5.25 expected by LSEGRevenue: $40.59 billion vs. $40.29 billion expected by LSEGSales in the third quarter jumped 19% year over year while net income grew 35% to $15.7 billion from $11.6 billion a year earlier. That represents Meta’s lowest year-over-year growth for net income since the second quarter of 2023.The company reported 3.29 billion daily active people for the third quarter. That was up 5% year over year, but it came in below…