Meta raised its capital-expenditure forecast, but it’s also posting strong enough revenue growth to support that spending.

Meta said it plans to raise its capital spending this year to $64 billion to $72 billion to speed up AI capacity.

Meta reported first-quarter sales of US$42.31 billion ($66.2 billion), beating Wall Street estimates of US$41.4 billion, with earnings per share of US$6.43 versus US$5.28 expected, according to LSEG data.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Tuesday launched a separate app for its Meta AI assistant, similar to those offered by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet's Google.

Meta Platforms Inc. released a new standalone artificial intelligence app on Tuesday in a bid to compete with other popular chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The standalone app comes as Meta looks to boost the AI assistant's usage, apart from being available within the company's family of social platforms.