The trajectory for most of our long-term initiatives is going to be a lot clearer by the end of this year,' said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta (META) stock climbed by around 4% in after-hours trading after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s earnings call that itplans to invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the longterm.

Meta said earnings per share were up annually by 50% to $8.02, versus Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $6.76.

"Investing 'very heavily' in capital expenditure and infrastructure is going to be a strategic advantage over time," Mark Zuckerberg said.

Meta has defended its $65bn (£52bn) investment in artificial intelligence (AI) days after US tech stocks wobbled in the wake of Chinese AI app DeepSeek's sudden rise. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said to investors on Wednesday there was a lot to learn from DeepSeek,