Wall Street Backs Meta’s 2026 AI Push, Even as Capex Climbs

Overview

• Jefferies’ Brent Thill reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $910 target, citing a low bar for estimates, new AI hires, Core Flywheel momentum, and WhatsApp’s potential to scale from a $9 billion run rate to $36 billion by FY29 alongside Threads and Llama.
• Rosenblatt kept a Buy with a $1,117 target tied to Meta’s Manus acquisition, while Wolfe set $800 with Outperform, Wedbush maintained Buy at $880, and Citizens reiterated Outperform at $900.
• Meta acquired Singapore-founded AI agent startup Manus on December 30 to integrate agentic AI into consumer and SMB products, with plans to operate and sell the service and fold it into Meta AI.
• Jim Cramer said his Charitable Trust holds a large Meta position, flagged capex guidance of roughly $70–$72 billion with potential upside, questioned generative-AI and cloud parity, and still called the outlook positive for shareholders.
• Meta paused the international rollout of its $799 Ray‑Ban Display smart glasses to prioritize U.S. demand, underscoring supply constraints and execution challenges in its hardware strategy.