Meta lifts capex floor to $135-145B as Muse agent passes 10 million users

Meta's Q3 showed both the momentum and the cost of its AI push. Revenue rose 26% to $64.6 billion. Its Muse agent reached 10 million North American users in 40 days and has since expanded to Japan. Meta raised its capex floor to $135-145 billion.

The longer-range numbers are more striking. Meta disclosed $825 billion in infrastructure commitments through 2036 and plans to issue non-voting Class C shares. It also reported its first negative free cash flow since 2012, a direct result of the buildout.

Reuters reported that investors punished Meta and other tech favorites over the size of the AI bill, even as Azure and AWS posted strong growth. Unlike the clouds, Meta must monetize AI through its own products, so Muse adoption is the metric to track.

Muse now competes head-on with Anthropic's Claude Duet and OpenAI's Dots for the personal-agent market. The open question is whether 10 million users translate into revenue before the cash-flow pressure becomes a governance issue.