Meta Hits 3.56 Billion Users and Pushes Deeper Into AI

Meta reported that 3.56 billion people use one of its apps every day—that's nearly half the world's population. The number grew by 130 million people over the past year, according to the company's earnings announcement on April 29. This includes people who use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads.

The company made even more money than the user count suggests. Revenue climbed 33% to $56.31 billion in the first three months of 2026, beating what analysts predicted. The gain came from more ads sold across Meta's platforms.

The Money-Losing VR Division

Meta's virtual reality business lost $4.03 billion last quarter while bringing in only $402 million in sales. This division, called Reality Labs, is where Meta is building its vision of virtual and augmented reality products. Despite the heavy spending, consumers have not shown much interest in VR headsets so far.

That $4.03 billion loss is enormous—bigger than the entire annual revenue of many large companies. Yet Meta is able to absorb these losses because its advertising business makes so much money.

Building Data Centers for AI

Meta announced it is constructing a massive new data center in Lebanon, Indiana, as part of its push to expand AI capabilities. The Indiana location sits about 25 miles northwest of Indianapolis. Meta chose this spot because it has reliable electric power and good fiber internet connections—two things that are essential for running AI systems that need lots of computing muscle.

This represents a shift in where Meta is putting its money. Over the past year, Meta has gradually moved resources from its struggling virtual reality projects toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. Training and operating large AI systems requires vast server farms, much like how a movie studio needs physical lots and equipment. Meta is building those lots.

What 3.56 Billion Users Really Means

Nearly four billion daily active users is a staggering number, but it tells a specific story. If there are about 8 billion people on Earth, Meta's apps reach roughly 44% of them. Getting to that scale already, growing by single digits is mostly about reaching people in poorer countries or convincing existing users to spend more time on the platforms. The easy growth phase ended years ago.

Also worth understanding: when Meta reports "daily active users," that number often counts the same person multiple times if they use Facebook in the morning and Instagram in the afternoon. So the 3.56 billion figure reflects activity across apps, not unique individual people.

Why Revenue Grew Faster Than Users

The fact that Meta's revenue grew by 33% while users grew by only 3.8% raises an obvious question: where is all that extra money coming from. The answer involves two factors working together. First, Meta has gotten better at showing ads that people are more likely to click on, using artificial intelligence to match ads to users. Second, businesses are simply spending more on advertising with Meta.

This is worth noting because it runs counter to what many people expected. A few years ago, Apple made it harder for companies to track people across apps, which looked like it would cripple Meta's advertising business. Instead, Meta adapted by using new techniques to keep its ads effective. The company has invested heavily in math and AI models that work without knowing everything about every person.

Balancing Money Today With Bets on Tomorrow

Meta's quarterly results show a company that is using profits from its core social media business to fund experiments in new areas. Reality Labs loses billions, but those losses come to about 7% of the company's total revenue—uncomfortable but sustainable.

The question worth asking: is Meta spending its money wisely. Investing $4 billion a quarter into VR when consumers are not buying headsets is a real opportunity cost. That same money could go toward building better AI features, helping creators make money, or expanding services to new countries. Meta is making a choice to do all three, but at some point, a company has to pick its priorities. The recent shift toward AI infrastructure suggests Meta may be starting to do exactly that.

The broader pattern here is one we have seen before in technology. In the early 2000s, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google raced to build data centers that seemed like overkill at the time. They won because they were ready when demand exploded. Meta appears to be making the same bet with AI. Whether it pays off depends on whether artificial intelligence becomes as essential to computing as the cloud did.

What Comes Next

Meta's scale—billions of users, hundreds of billions in revenue, and the ability to move hundreds of billions of dollars into long-term infrastructure—gives the company room to pursue multiple big bets. Few other companies can afford to lose $4 billion a quarter on experimental products while investing heavily in AI at the same time.

For the company's owners and investors, the big question is straightforward: will Meta's dominance in social media translate into dominance in whatever comes after. Will Meta own the next generation of computing the way it dominates social media today. The data center in Lebanon is Meta betting yes.