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. Meta put out a deep dive today on "Prometheus", its gigawatt-scale training cluster in New Albany, Ohio, and it's a great example of co-engineering to the max with @nvidia. Meta says it goes beyond a normal vendor relationship with teams embedded in the data centers, sharing…— Patrick Moorhead (@PatrickMoorhead) October 19, 2026 Read Also: Jim Cramer Says Meta Must Be Seen as an ‘Enterprise Company’ as Muse AI Could Drive an '18 Times Multiple' to 24-25x 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. Read Also: Tom Lee Predicts S&P 500 At 8,400 By Year-End, Says Midterm Elections Could Trigger ‘Risk-On’ Rally in Tech Stocks and Crypto: ‘We Are in an Unprecedented Time’ Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock