# Meta Beats on Revenue Again, But Its Muse AI Bet Is Burning Cash Faster Than It Earns It > Meta posted its 17th straight quarterly revenue beat and a jump in Muse AI sign-ups, but free cash flow turned negative as the company's AI buildout outpaces what the ad business can fund. - Source: Principle Post - Canonical URL: https://principlepost.com/article/meta-muse-ai-earnings-cash-burn - Author: Principle Post Staff - Section: Business - Published: 2026-10-22T14:21:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T14:21:00.000Z - Tags: Meta, Muse AI, earnings, Mark Zuckerberg, Wall Street --- Meta Platforms posted its 17th consecutive quarterly revenue beat on Wednesday, reporting $64.6 billion for the third quarter, up 26% from a year earlier and ahead of the $63.37 billion Wall Street had expected. Shares rose roughly 2.5% in after-hours trading as investors looked past a one-time legal charge to the underlying strength of the advertising business funding Mark Zuckerberg's artificial-intelligence buildout. Reported earnings per share came in at $3.83, well below what analysts had modeled, but the headline number was distorted by a $9.9 billion charge tied to an August child-safety legal settlement. Stripped of that one-time cost, adjusted EPS would have been $7.40, comfortably clearing estimates and reinforcing the case that Meta's core ad business remains healthy enough to bankroll its AI ambitions. That AI push is increasingly centered on Muse, the generative AI product Meta launched this year, which the company said has drawn more than 10 million sign-ups in just six weeks, with roughly a quarter of users returning daily. Barclays raised its price target on Meta to $880, citing Muse's early growth as evidence the product could eventually generate meaningful revenue beyond Meta's advertising base. Monetization, however, remains thin. Meta executives said Muse currently brings in money only through subscriptions, with transaction fees, business tools and enterprise sales pitched as future revenue streams rather than present ones. The product is also, by the company's own description, "very compute-intensive," a characterization that shows up directly in Meta's cash flow. Free cash flow turned negative for the quarter, at minus $2.1 billion, as capital spending on AI infrastructure outpaced the cash the business generates. Analysts do not expect free cash flow to turn positive again until 2029, underscoring how long an investment horizon Zuckerberg is asking shareholders to accept in exchange for a leading position in generative AI. For now, rising Wall Street price targets suggest investors are willing to extend that patience, so long as the ad business keeps beating estimates quarter after quarter. --- Originally published by Principle Post. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://principlepost.com/article/meta-muse-ai-earnings-cash-burn.