Meta Q3 Earnings Preview: Wall Street Eyes Muse AI Monetization As Mark Zuckerberg's AI Bet Faces Its Next Test
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) will report third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Oct. 21, as analysts evaluate the company’s plans to generate revenue from its Muse artificial intelligence models. The upcoming earnings call follows Meta’s publication of a technical overview of Prometheus, its gigawatt-scale AI supercluster in Ohio built around Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) infrastructure.
Prometheus Infrastructure and ‘Real Failure Data’
Meta released a technical overview of Prometheus, a gigawatt-scale supercluster in New Albany, Ohio. Tech analyst Patrick Moorhead described the project as an example of “co-engineering to the max” with Nvidia.
Moorhead highlighted that Meta shared “real failure data,” noting a 99% reduction in daily interruptions per 8,000 graphics processing units since mid-2025. Moorhead referred to the data as “good fodder” ahead of Wednesday’s earnings report.
The cluster currently utilizes hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs and targets a scale of approximately one million GPUs. Moorhead stated that at this capacity, Meta is “fighting reliability and power every day.”
According to Benzinga Pro data, the consensus estimates for Meta’s third quarter are $63.36 billion in revenue and $5.89 in earnings per share.
Monetization Strategies for Muse AI
Analysts are examining how Meta will turn the Muse models into revenue sources. Dan Ives stated that his focus is on “whether Meta can begin to monetize Muse on top of the ad engine.”
Meta President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick previously discussed monetization pathways, stating, “So the more you use it, we may have opportunities, obviously, for subscriptions as well.”
Revenue Projections and Price Targets
Financial institutions have updated their forecasts based on the AI initiatives. Truist, as flagged by market Strategist Shay Boloor, estimated that Muse revenue will reach approximately $29 billion by 2030, with an estimated $11 billion coming from subscriptions.
Morgan Stanley‘s note, shared by Hardik Shah on X maintained an overweight rating and raised its price target for Meta to $820. The firm attributed the revision to stronger core advertising trends and an expected increase in revenue driven by “high-margin Muse/business AI subscriptions.”
How Has META Performed in 2026?
META stock was down 1.05% in premarket trading on Tuesday. It declined by 1.60% over the last year, but is up 6.87% year-to-date and 5.96% over the last month. The stock closed down 0.55% at $705.44 on Monday.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that META maintains a strong price trend in the short, long, and medium terms, with a moderate value score.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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