10-K – 2026-01-29 – meta-20251231.htm

We review our intangible assets for impairment when events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value may not be recoverable, such as a decline in stock price and market capitalization. We test goodwill for impairment at the reporting unit level at least annually. If such goodwill or intangible assets are deemed to be impaired, an impairment loss equal to the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the fair value of the assets would be recognized. We may be required to record a significant charge in our financial statements during the period in which any impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets is determined, which would negatively affect our results of operations.
The loss of one or more of our key personnel, or our failure to attract and retain other highly qualified personnel in the future, could harm our business.

We currently depend on the continued services and performance of our key personnel, including Mark Zuckerberg. Mr. Zuckerberg and certain other members of management participate in various high-risk activities, such as combat sports, extreme sports, and recreational aviation, which carry the risk of serious injury and death. If Mr. Zuckerberg were to become unavailable for any reason, there could be a material adverse impact on our operations. The loss of other key personnel, including members of management as well as key engineering, product development, science, research, marketing, and sales personnel, could also disrupt our operations and have an adverse effect on our business.

In addition, we cannot guarantee we will continue to attract and retain the personnel we need to maintain our competitive position. In particular, we expect to continue to face significant challenges in hiring specialized technical personnel, particularly senior engineering and AI research talent, whether as a result of competition with other companies or other factors. As our company continues to evolve, the incentives to attract, retain, and motivate employees provided by our equity awards or by future arrangements may not be as effective as in the past. From time to time we issue significant equity to attract additional employees or to retain our existing employees, resulting in substantial additional share-based compensation expense and dilution to the ownership of our existing stockholders. Our ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees may also be adversely affected by stock price volatility. In addition, restrictive immigration policies or legal or regulatory developments relating to immigration may negatively affect our efforts to attract and hire new personnel as well as retain our existing personnel. If we do not succeed in attracting, hiring, and integrating excellent personnel, or retaining and motivating existing personnel, we may be unable to grow effectively or otherwise achieve our business objectives.
Our CEO has control over key decision making as a result of his control of a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.

Mark Zuckerberg, our founder, Chairman, and CEO, is able to exercise voting rights with respect to a majority of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock and therefore has the ability to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This concentrated control could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that our other stockholders support, or conversely this concentrated control could result in the consummation of such a transaction that our other stockholders do not support. This concentrated control could also discourage a potential investor from acquiring our Class A common stock, which has limited voting power relative to the Class B common stock, and might harm the trading price of our Class A common stock. In addition, Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the management and major strategic investments of our company as a result of his position as our CEO and his ability to control the election or, in some cases, the replacement of our directors. In the event of his death, the shares of our capital stock that Mr. Zuckerberg owns will be transferred to the persons or entities that he has designated. As a board member and officer, Mr. Zuckerberg owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, even a controlling stockholder, Mr. Zuckerberg is entitled to vote his shares in his own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally.
We cannot guarantee that our share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. Share repurchases and dividend payments could also increase the volatility of the trading price of our stock and will diminish our cash reserves.

Although our board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program that does not have an expiration date, the program does not obligate us to repurchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares of our Class A common stock. The specific timing and amount of any share repurchases, and the specific timing and amount of any
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dividend payments, will depend on prevailing share prices, general economic and market conditions, company performance, and other considerations. We cannot guarantee that the repurchase program will be fully consummated or that it will enhance long-term stockholder value. The repurchase program and dividend payments could affect the trading price of our stock and increase volatility, and any announcement of a termination of this repurchase program or dividend payments may result in a decrease in the trading price of our stock. In addition, this repurchase program and dividend payments will diminish our cash reserves.

There can be no assurance that we will continue to declare cash dividends.

The payment of any cash dividends in the future is subject to continued capital availability, market conditions, applicable laws and agreements, and our board of directors continuing to determine that the declaration of dividends are in the best interests of our stockholders. The declaration and payment of any dividend may be discontinued or reduced at any time, and there can be no assurance that we will declare cash dividends in the future in any particular amounts, or at all.
Risks Related to Government Regulation and Enforcement
Actions by governments that restrict access to Facebook or our other products in their countries, censor or moderate content on our products in their countries, or otherwise impair our ability to sell or deliver advertising in their countries, could substantially harm our business and financial results.

Governments from time to time seek to censor or moderate content available on Facebook or our other products in their country, restrict access to our products from their country partially or entirely, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of our products in their country for an extended period of time or indefinitely. For example, user access to Facebook and certain of our other products has been or is currently restricted in whole or in part in China, Iran, and North Korea. In addition, government authorities in other countries may seek to restrict user access to our products if they consider us to be in violation of their laws or a threat to public safety or for other reasons, and certain of our products have been restricted by governments in other countries from time to time. For example, in 2020, Hong Kong adopted a National Security Law that provides authorities with the ability to obtain information, remove and block access to content, and suspend user services, and if we are found to be in violation of this law then the use of our products may be restricted. Hong Kong has passed additional national security legislation in 2024. In addition, if we are required to or elect to make changes to our marketing and sales or other operations in Hong Kong as a result of the National Security Law or other legislation, our revenue and business in the region will be adversely affected. In addition, in connection with the war in Ukraine in 2022, access to Facebook and Instagram was restricted in Russia and the services were then prohibited by the Russian government, which has adversely affected, and will likely continue to adversely affect, our revenue and business in the region.

It is also possible that government authorities could take action that impairs our ability to sell or deliver advertising, including in countries where access to our consumer-facing products may be blocked or restricted. For example, we generate meaningful revenue from a small number of resellers serving advertisers based in China, and it is possible that the Chinese, United States, or other government could take action that reduces or eliminates our China-based advertising revenue, whether as a result of the trade dispute with the United States, including any tariffs implemented by the United States or China, in response to content issues or information requests in Hong Kong or elsewhere, or for other reasons, or take other action against us, such as imposing taxes or other penalties, which could adversely affect our financial results.

Similarly, if we are found to be out of compliance with certain legal requirements for companies in Turkey, the Turkish government could take action to reduce or eliminate our Turkey-based advertising revenue or otherwise adversely impact access to our products. In the event that content shown on Facebook or our other products is subject to censorship, access to our products is restricted, in whole or in part, in one or more countries, we are required to or elect to make changes to our operations, or other restrictions are imposed on our products, or our competitors are able to successfully penetrate new geographic markets or capture a greater share of existing geographic markets that we cannot access or where we face other restrictions, our ability to retain or increase our user base, user engagement, or the level of advertising by marketers may be adversely affected, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated, and our financial results could be adversely affected.
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Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data use, data combination, data protection, content, AI, competition, youth, safety, consumer protection, advertising, e-commerce, and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our products and business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our business.

We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad that involve matters central to our business, including privacy, data use, data combination, data protection and personal information, the provision of our services to younger users, biometrics, encryption, rights of publicity, content, integrity, intellectual property, advertising, marketing, distribution, data security, data retention and deletion, data localization and storage, data disclosure, AI and machine learning, electronic contracts and other communications, competition, protection of minors, consumer protection, civil rights, accessibility, telecommunications, product liability, medical devices, e-commerce, taxation, economic or other trade controls including sanctions, export controls, anti-corruption and political law compliance, securities law compliance, and online payment services. The introduction of new products, expansion of our activities in certain jurisdictions, or other actions that we may take may subject us to additional laws, regulations, or other government scrutiny. In addition, these U.S. and foreign laws and regulations may impose different obligations from each other and create the potential for significant fines to be imposed or other consequences such as changes to our products or business practices.

These U.S. federal and state, EU, and other international laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change. As a result, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the new and rapidly evolving industry in which we operate, and may be interpreted and applied inconsistently from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. For example, regulatory or legislative actions or litigation concerning the manner in which we display content to our users, moderate content, provide our services to younger users, or are able to use data in various ways, including for advertising, have in the past and could in the future adversely affect user growth and engagement, affect the manner in which we provide our services, or adversely affect our financial results, including by imposing significant fines that increasingly may be calculated based on global revenue.

We are also subject to evolving laws and regulations that dictate whether, how, and under what circumstances we can transfer, process or receive certain data that is critical to our operations, including data shared between countries or regions in which we operate and data shared among our products and services. For example, the bases upon which we have relied for data transfers from the European Union to the United States have been subjected to regulatory and judicial scrutiny. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Privacy Shield in 2020 and also considered the validity of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as a basis to transfer user data from the European Union to the United States following a challenge brought by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC). Although the CJEU upheld the validity of SCCs in 2020, in May 2023, the IDPC issued a Final Decision concluding that Meta Platforms Ireland’s reliance on SCCs in respect of certain transfers of European Economic Area (EEA) Facebook user data was not in compliance with the GDPR. The IDPC issued an administrative fine of EUR €1.2 billion as well as corrective orders requiring Meta Platforms Ireland to suspend the relevant transfers and to bring its processing operations into compliance with Chapter V GDPR by ceasing the unlawful processing, including storage, of such data in the United States. We are appealing this Final Decision and it is currently subject to a stay from the Irish High Court. We have also implemented steps to comply with the above corrective orders and are pending the IDPC's confirmation that these address the corrective orders. During the course of this matter, in 2022, the European Union and United States reached an agreement on a new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), which the European Commission deemed adequate in relation to U.S. data transfers in July 2023. The EU-U.S. DPF replaces two prior adequacy frameworks which were invalidated by the CJEU. A further invalidation of the EU-U.S. DPF by the CJEU could create considerable uncertainty and lead to us being unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In addition, we have been managing investigations and lawsuits in India and other jurisdictions regarding the 2021 updates to WhatsApp's terms of service and privacy policy and its sharing of certain data with other Meta products and services, including a lawsuit currently pending before the Supreme Court of India and an order by the Competition Commission of India, which we are appealing. If we are unable to transfer data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are restricted from sharing data among our products and services, it could affect our ability to provide our services, the manner in which we provide our services or our ability to target ads, which could adversely affect our financial results.
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We have been subject to other significant legislative and regulatory developments, which together with proposed or new legislation and regulations could significantly affect our business in the future. For example, we have implemented a number of product changes and controls as a result of requirements under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and may implement additional changes in the future. The GDPR also requires submission of personal data breach notifications to our lead European Union privacy regulator, the IDPC, and includes significant penalties for non-compliance with the notification obligation as well as other requirements of the regulation. The interpretation of the GDPR is still evolving, including through decisions of the CJEU, and draft decisions in investigations by the IDPC are subject to review by other European privacy regulators as part of the GDPR's consistency mechanism, which may lead to significant changes in the final outcome of such investigations. We also face potential enforcement from European privacy regulators other than the IDPC, including where those regulators consider they must act urgently or where they believe their concerns relate only to data processing undertaken in their individual jurisdiction. As a result, the interpretation and enforcement of the GDPR, as well as the imposition and amount of penalties for non-compliance, are subject to significant uncertainty, and as it evolves, could potentially have a negative impact on our business and/or our operations. In addition, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and other countries have enacted similar data protection regulations imposing data privacy-related requirements on products and services offered to users in their respective jurisdictions. The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, also establishes certain transparency rules and creates certain data privacy rights for users, including limitations on our use of certain sensitive personal information and more ability for users to control the purposes for which their data is shared with third parties. Other states have proposed or enacted similar comprehensive privacy laws that afford users with similar data privacy rights and controls. These laws and regulations are evolving and subject to interpretation, and resulting limitations on our advertising services, or reductions of advertising by marketers, have to some extent adversely affected, and will continue to adversely affect, our advertising business. Some states have also proposed or enacted laws specifically focused on whether and how a company can moderate content on its services, and/or on the privacy rights and controls for users under 18 years old and their parents or guardians. Like comprehensive privacy laws, these laws are evolving and subject to interpretation, and may restrict our ability to offer certain products and services provided to all or certain cohorts of users in those states, adversely affecting our advertising business. In Europe, evolving interpretation of the ePrivacy Directive's requirements regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies may lead to regulators imposing specific measures in the future which could directly impact our use of such technologies. In addition, the ePrivacy Directive and national implementation laws impose additional limitations on the use of data across messaging products and include significant penalties for non-compliance. Changes to our products or business practices as a result of these or similar developments have adversely affected, and may in the future adversely affect, our advertising business. For example, in response to regulatory developments in Europe, we announced plans to change the legal basis for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland from "legitimate interests" to "consent," and in November 2023 we began offering users in the region a "subscription for no ads" alternative. We are engaging with regulators on our consent model, including regarding compliance with requirements under the GDPR, DMA, and EU consumer laws. For example, in March 2024, the European Commission opened formal proceedings regarding the compliance of our "subscription for no ads" model with requirements under the DMA, and it issued preliminary findings in July 2024. In addition, the European Data Protection Board has published an opinion on the operation of such models under GDPR and European consumer protection organizations have raised concerns regarding our compliance with consumer protection laws. In response to these developments, in November 2024, we began offering users in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland who elect to continue using our services free-of-charge, supported by ads, an option to see less personalized ads (LPA), which are less relevant and effective than our premium ad offerings. In April 2025, the European Commission issued a final decision that our "subscription for no ads" model does not comply with such requirements. We made significant modifications to LPA since the European Commission issued its final decision. We have appealed the European Commission's decision but further modifications to our model may be imposed during the appeal process, which could result in a materially worse user experience for European users and a significant impact to our European business and revenue. These or any similar developments in the future may negatively impact our user growth and engagement, revenue, and financial results.

Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals or recently enacted laws in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new obligations or limitations in areas affecting our business. For example, the DMA in the European Union imposes restrictions and requirements on companies like ours, including in areas such as the combination of data across services, mergers and acquisitions, and product design. The DMA also includes significant penalties for non-compliance, and its key requirements are enforceable against designated gatekeeper companies as of March 2024. The DMA has caused, and may in the future cause, us to incur significant compliance costs and make changes to our products or business practices. The requirements under the DMA will likely be subject to further interpretation and regulatory engagement. Pending or future proposals to modify competition laws
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in a number of jurisdictions could have similar effects. Further, the DSA, which started to apply to our business as of August 2023, imposes certain restrictions and requirements for our products and services, subjects us to increased compliance costs, and includes significant penalties for non-compliance. In the UK, the OSA establishes similar types of obligations. The interpretation and enforcement of the DMA, DSA, and OSA, as well as the imposition and amount of penalties for non-compliance, are subject to significant uncertainty. In addition, some countries, such as the UK, India, and Turkey, are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements, new competition requirements, or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could require substantial changes to our products, increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services, cause us to cease the offering of our products and services in certain countries, and/or result in fines or other penalties. We are also subject to new legislation or regulatory decisions that restrict our ability to collect and use information about minors or also limit our advertising services or our ability to offer products and services to minors in certain jurisdictions. For example, several U.S. states, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, New York, Texas, and Utah, among others, have passed laws restricting our ability to offer services to minors without parental consent or otherwise limiting the services that we can provide to minors. While enforcement of a number of these statutes (or parts of them) has been enjoined or stayed as a result of legal challenges to them, it is possible that the decisions to enjoin these statutes may be overturned, the injunctive orders may expire, and certain statutes are coming into effect that may not be subject to injunctions. Should enforcement of one or more of these statutes not be enjoined, we may not be able to comply with certain of these statutes by their respective effective dates. We are facing similar challenges in other jurisdictions, including Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. For example, various EU member states are currently considering a range of legislation from mandatory age verification requirements to banning minor access to social media services. In addition, recent legislation in Australia imposes a social media ban for users under 16 years old, requiring certain social media companies to take reasonable steps to ensure under 16 year olds do not hold user accounts. As a result of legislative proposals, new laws, and evolving interpretation of existing laws in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and other jurisdictions, we are also, and expect to continue to be, subject to new requirements relating to allegedly fraudulent or illegal activities by third parties on our platform, which could continue to cause us to incur significant compliance costs or make changes to our products or business practices, and could subject us to additional fines and penalties or liability for losses to users or other third parties in such transactions. In addition, the Province of British Columbia has considered, and may in the future consider, a bill that would permit the government to recover public health-related costs potentially associated with providing goods and services in British Columbia, including potentially social media services.

We are also subject to disclosure, reporting, and diligence requirements regarding our social and environmental risks and initiatives. There has been increased focus on these initiatives by many regulators, investors, and other stakeholders and any actual or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable federal, state, local or international laws and regulations could result in legal and regulatory proceedings against us and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

These laws and regulations, as well as any associated claims, inquiries, or investigations or any government actions, have led to, and may in the future lead to, unfavorable outcomes including increased compliance costs, changes to our products, loss of revenue, delays or impediments in the development of new products, negative publicity and reputational harm, increased operating costs, diversion of management time and attention, and remedies that harm our business, including fines, damages, or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.
We have been and remain subject to regulatory and other government investigations, enforcement actions, and settlements, and we expect to continue to be subject to such proceedings and other inquiries in the future, which could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business.

We receive formal and informal inquiries from government authorities and regulators regarding our compliance with laws and regulations, many of which are evolving and subject to interpretation. We are and expect to continue to be the subject of investigations, inquiries, data requests, requests for information, actions, and audits in the United States, Europe, and around the world, particularly in the areas of privacy, data use, data combination, and data protection, including with respect to processing of sensitive data, data from third parties, data for advertising purposes, data security, minors, data subject rights, safety, law enforcement, consumer protection, civil rights, content and content moderation, use of our platform for illegal, illicit, or otherwise objectionable activity, competition, consumer hardware and software, including virtual reality technology and products, AI, generative AI, and machine learning. In addition, we are currently, and may in the future be, subject to regulatory orders or consent decrees. For example, data protection, competition, content, and consumer protection authorities in the European Union, United States, and other jurisdictions have initiated actions, investigations, or administrative orders seeking to restrict the ways in which we collect and use information, or impose sanctions, and other
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authorities may do the same. In addition, we have been and continue to be the subject of litigation and investigations related to the ways in which we collect and use information, including where advertisers are subject to additional regulation such as housing, employment, credit, and financial services. In addition, beginning in March 2018, we became subject to FTC, state attorneys general, and other government inquiries in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions in connection with our platform and user data practices as well as the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies. In July 2019, we entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the FTC inquiry, which took effect in April 2020 and, among other things, required us to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight. Certain state attorneys general inquiries and litigation, and certain government inquiries in other jurisdictions remain ongoing. The FTC also continues to monitor us and our compliance with the modified consent order and initiated an administrative proceeding against us, which we are challenging at the agency and in federal court, that alleges deficient compliance and violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the COPPA Rule, and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and seeks changes to our business. If we are unsuccessful in our challenge to the FTC's action and the agency imposes its proposed order in its current form, we would be subject to significant limitations, including on our ability to launch new and modified products or use data of users under 18 years old. We also notify the IDPC, our lead European Union privacy regulator under the GDPR, and other regulators of certain other personal data breaches and privacy issues, issue similar notifications to European and other regulators under other laws (such as UK GDPR and Member State implementations of the ePrivacy Directive), and are subject to inquiries and investigations by the IDPC and other regulators regarding various aspects of our regulatory compliance. In addition, we are subject to inquiries and investigations by the European Commission regarding our compliance with various provisions of the DSA relating to the use of Facebook and Instagram, including matters related to elections, content reporting and appeals, third-party access to data, political content recommendations, potential deceptive advertising and disinformation, and minors and other vulnerable users. We have been, and may in the future be, subject to penalties, fines, and requirements to change our business practices as a result of such inquiries and investigations. In addition, in July 2024, we entered into a settlement to resolve a lawsuit by the state of Texas in connection with the "tag suggestions" feature and other uses of facial recognition technology.

We are also subject to various litigation and formal and informal inquiries and investigations by competition authorities in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions, which relate to many aspects of our business, including with respect to users and advertisers. Such inquiries, investigations, and lawsuits concern, among other things, our business practices in the areas of social networking or social media services, messaging services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications, as well as our acquisitions. For example, beginning in 2019, we became the subject of antitrust inquiries and investigations by the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning in 2020, we became subject to a lawsuit by the FTC alleging that we violated antitrust laws, including by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. The complaint seeks a permanent injunction against our company's alleged violations of the antitrust laws, and other equitable relief, including divestiture or reconstruction of Instagram and WhatsApp. In addition, in November 2024, the European Commission issued a fine as a result of its finding that we tied Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and use data in a manner that infringes European Union competition rules. We are also subject to other government inquiries and investigations relating to our business activities and disclosure practices. For example, beginning in September 2021, we became subject to government investigations and requests relating to allegations and the release of internal company documents by a former employee.

Orders issued by, or inquiries or enforcement actions initiated by, government or regulatory authorities could cause us to incur substantial costs, expose us to civil and criminal liability (including liability for our personnel) or penalties (including substantial monetary remedies), interrupt or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business (including changes to our products or user data practices), result in negative publicity and reputational harm, divert resources and the time and attention of management from our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral remedies that adversely affect our business, and we have experienced some of these adverse effects to varying degrees from time to time.
Compliance with our FTC consent order, the GDPR, U.S. state privacy laws, youth social media laws, the ePrivacy Directive, the DMA, the DSA, the OSA, and other regulatory and legislative privacy requirements require significant operational resources and modifications to our business practices, and any compliance failures may have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, and financial results.

We are engaged in ongoing privacy compliance and oversight efforts, including in connection with our modified consent order with the FTC, requirements of the GDPR and UK GDPR, and other current and anticipated regulatory and legislative requirements around the world, such as U.S. state privacy laws, youth social media laws, the ePrivacy Directive,
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DMA, DSA, OSA, EU AI Act, the Korean Personal Information Protection Act, and the Indian Digital Personal Data Protection Act. In particular, we are maintaining a comprehensive privacy program in connection with the FTC consent order that includes substantial management and board of directors oversight, stringent operational requirements and reporting obligations, prohibitions against making misrepresentations relating to user data, a process to regularly certify our compliance with the privacy program to the FTC, and regular assessments of our privacy program by an independent third-party assessor, which has been and will continue to be challenging and costly to maintain and enhance. These compliance and oversight efforts are increasing demand on our systems and resources, and require significant new and ongoing investments, including investments in compliance processes, personnel, and technical infrastructure. We continually reallocate resources internally to assist with these efforts, and this has had, and will continue to have, an adverse impact on our other business initiatives. In addition, these efforts require substantial modifications to our business practices and make some practices such as product and ads development more difficult, time-consuming, and costly. As a result, we believe our ability to develop and launch new features, products, and services in a timely manner has been and will continue to be adversely affected. Further, our privacy compliance and oversight efforts have required, and we expect will continue to require, significant time and attention from our management and board of directors. The requirements of the FTC consent order and other privacy-related laws and regulations are complex and apply broadly to our business, and from time to time we notify relevant authorities of instances where we are not in full compliance with these requirements or otherwise discover privacy issues, and we expect to continue to do so as any such issues arise in the future. In addition, regulatory and legislative privacy requirements are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant change and uncertain interpretation. For example, we are subject to restrictions and requirements under the DMA, including in areas such as the combination of data across services and product design, which will likely be subject to further interpretation and regulatory engagement.

The FTC initiated an administrative proceeding against us alleging, among other things, deficient compliance with the FTC consent order and seeking substantial modifications to the requirements of the consent order, including a prohibition on our use of minors' data for any commercial purposes, changes to the composition of our board of directors, and significant limitations on our ability to modify and launch new products. We are challenging the FTC's administrative proceeding. If the challenge is unsuccessful and the FTC is able to impose the proposed order in its current form, it would limit our ability to provide certain features and services, engage in certain business practices, require us to further increase the time, resources, and costs we spend on compliance and oversight efforts, and would adversely affect our business and financial results.

If we are unable to successfully implement and comply with the mandates of the FTC consent order (including any future modifications to the order), GDPR and UK GDPR, U.S. state privacy laws, youth social media laws, ePrivacy Directive, DMA, DSA, or other regulatory or legislative requirements, or if any relevant authority believes that we are in violation of the consent order or other applicable requirements, we may be subject to regulatory or governmental investigations or lawsuits, which may result in significant monetary fines or damages (including for loss of control of data without other damage), judgments, penalties, or other remedies, and we may also be required to make additional changes to our business practices. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, and financial results.
We may incur liability as a result of information retrieved from or transmitted over the internet or published using our products or as a result of claims related to our products, and legislation regulating content on our platform may require us to change our products or business practices and may adversely affect our business and financial results.

We have faced, currently face, and will continue to face claims and government and regulatory inquiries relating to information or content that is published or made available on our products, including claims, inquiries, and investigations relating to our policies, algorithms, and enforcement decisions with respect to such information or content. In particular, the nature of our business exposes us to claims and inquiries related to defamation, dissemination of misinformation or news hoaxes, deceptive and fraudulent advertising, sanctions, discrimination, harassment, intellectual property rights, rights of publicity and privacy, personal injury torts, laws regulating hate speech or other types of content, on- or offline safety and well-being (such as acts of violence, terrorism, improper promotion or distribution of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs, human exploitation, child exploitation, illegal gaming, and other fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity), products liability, consumer protection, and breach of contract, among others. For example, over the last several years we have seen an increase in claims brought by or on behalf of younger users, including claims related to well-being issues based on allegedly harmful content that is shared on or recommended by our products. In addition, we have been subject to litigation alleging that our ad targeting and delivery practices constitute violations of anti-discrimination laws.

The potential risks relating to any of the foregoing types of claims are currently enhanced in certain jurisdictions outside the United States where our protection from liability for third-party actions may be unclear or where we may be less
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protected under local laws than we are in the United States. For example, in April 2019, the European Union passed a directive (the European Copyright Directive) expanding online platform liability for copyright infringement and regulating certain uses of news content online, which the EU member states have since implemented into their national laws. In addition, the European Union revised the European Audiovisual Media Service Directive to apply to online video-sharing platforms, which member states are implementing. Additionally, in June 2025, the Brazilian Supreme Court partially invalidated the country's intermediary liability framework, which previously limited platform responsibility for third-party content. The new court-established liability framework requires platforms to remove unlawful content upon private notice and to implement adequate measures to prevent and remove illegal ads and content related to certain crimes under local law, resulting in civil liability in case of non-compliance. As a result, we anticipate making product and operational changes to our content reporting processes in Brazil and may face increased litigation and/or regulatory enforcement. In the United States, in 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a matter in which the scope of the protections available to online platforms under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (Section 230) was at issue, but it ultimately declined to address Section 230 in its decision. There also have been, and continue to be, various other litigation concerning, and state and federal legislative and executive efforts to remove or restrict, the scope of the protections under Section 230, as well as to impose new obligations on online platforms with respect to commerce listings, user access and content, including electoral-related and AI-generated content, counterfeit goods and copyright-infringing material, and our current protections from liability for third-party content in the United States could decrease or change. We could incur significant costs investigating and defending such claims and, if we are found liable, significant damages.

We could also face fines, orders restricting or blocking our services in particular geographies, or other judicial or government-imposed remedies as a result of content hosted on our services. For example, legislation in Germany and India has resulted, and may result in the future, in the imposition of fines or other penalties for failure to comply with certain content removal, law enforcement cooperation, and disclosure obligations. Numerous other countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America are considering or have implemented similar legislation imposing liability or potentially significant penalties, including fines, service throttling, or advertising bans, for failure to remove certain types of content or follow certain processes. For example, we have been subject to fines and may in the future be subject to other penalties in connection with social media legislation in Turkey, and we have been subject to fines and service blocking and prohibition in Russia. Content-related legislation also has required us, and may require us in the future, to change our products or business practices, increase our costs, or otherwise impact our operations or our ability to provide services in certain geographies. For example, the European Copyright Directive requires certain online services to obtain authorizations for copyrighted content or to implement measures to prevent the availability of that content, which may require us to make substantial investments in compliance processes. Member states' laws implementing the European Copyright Directive may also require online platforms to pay for content. In addition, our products and services are subject to restrictions and requirements, and we are subject to increased compliance costs, and potential fines or other penalties in the event of non-compliance, as a result of the Digital Services Act in the European Union, which started to apply to our business as of August 2023, and other content-related legislative developments such as the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act in Ireland and the Online Safety Act in the United Kingdom. Certain countries and U.S. states have also implemented or proposed legislation that may require us to pay publishers for certain news content shared on our products. For example, as a result of such legislation in Canada, we have ended the availability of news content for Canadian users on Facebook and Instagram. In the United States, changes to the protections available under Section 230 or the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or new state or federal content-related legislation or investigations may increase our costs or require significant changes to our products, business practices, or operations, which could adversely affect user growth and engagement.

Any of the foregoing events could adversely affect our business and financial results.
Payment-related activities may subject us to additional regulatory requirements, regulatory actions, and other risks that could be costly and difficult to comply with or that could harm our business.

Several of our products offer Payments functionality, including enabling our users to purchase tangible, virtual, and digital goods from merchants and developers that offer applications using our Payments infrastructure, send money to other users, and make donations to certain charitable organizations, among other activities. We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, including those governing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing, money transmission, stored value, gift cards and other prepaid access instruments, electronic funds transfer, virtual currency, consumer protection, charitable fundraising, economic sanctions, and import and export restrictions. In addition, we could become subject to new consumer protection laws and regulations that may be adopted or amended, including those related to payments activity as well as sharing, collection, and use of payments-related data. Depending on how our Payments products evolve, we may also be subject to other laws and regulations including those
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governing gambling, banking, and lending. In some jurisdictions, the application or interpretation of these laws and regulations is not clear. We have received certain payments licenses in the United States and other jurisdictions for our regulated Payments-related products and activities. These licenses increase flexibility in how our use of Payments may evolve, help mitigate regulatory uncertainty, and will generally require us to demonstrate compliance with many domestic and foreign laws in relation to our licensed Payments products and activities. Our efforts to comply with these laws and regulations could be costly and result in diversion of management time and attention and may still not guarantee compliance. In the event that we are found to be in violation of any such legal or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to monetary fines or other penalties such as a cease and desist order, or we may be required to make product changes, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.

In addition, we are subject to a variety of additional risks as a result of Payments transactions, including: increased costs and diversion of management time and attention and other resources to address bad transactions or customer disputes; potential fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity by users, developers, employees, or third parties; restrictions on the investment of consumer funds used to transact Payments; and additional disclosure and reporting requirements. We have also launched payments functionality on certain of our applications and may in the future undertake additional payments initiatives, including as part of our metaverse efforts, which may subject us to many of the foregoing risks and additional licensing requirements.

Risks Related to Data, Security, Platform Integrity, and Intellectual Property

Security breaches, improper access to or disclosure of our data or user data, other hacking and phishing attacks on our systems, or other cyber incidents could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.

Our industry is prone to cyber-attacks by parties seeking unauthorized access to our data or users' data or to disrupt our ability to provide service or otherwise harm us. Our products and services involve the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of a large amount of data. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches and improper access to or disclosure of our data or user data, including personal information, content, or payment information from users, information from marketers, and other intellectual property or content on our systems, could result in the loss, modification, disclosure, destruction, or other misuse of such data, which could harm our business and reputation and diminish our competitive position. In addition, computer malware, viruses, social engineering (such as spear phishing attacks), scraping, and general hacking continue to be prevalent in our industry, have occurred on our systems, and will occur on our systems in the future. We also regularly encounter attempts to create false or undesirable user accounts, purchase ads, or take other actions on our platform for purposes such as spamming, spreading misinformation, or other illegal, illicit, or otherwise objectionable ends. As a result of our prominence, the size of our user base, the types and volume of personal data and content on our systems, and the evolving nature of our products and services (including our efforts involving new and emerging technologies), we believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such breaches and attacks, including from nation states and highly sophisticated, state-sponsored, or otherwise well-funded actors, and we experience heightened risk from time to time as a result of geopolitical events. Our efforts to address undesirable activity on our platform also increase the risk of retaliatory attacks. Such breaches and attacks may cause interruptions to the services we provide, degrade the user experience or otherwise adversely affect users, cause users or marketers to lose confidence and trust in our products, impair our internal systems or product development, or result in financial harm to us. Our efforts to protect our company data or the information we receive, and to prevent or disable undesirable activities on our platform, may also be unsuccessful due to software bugs, misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, or other technical malfunctions; employee, contractor, or vendor error or malfeasance; social engineering or other cyber-attacks directed towards our personnel or their access; misuse of company data or systems by our personnel; defects or vulnerabilities in our vendors' information technology systems or offerings; government exploitation or surveillance; breaches of physical security of our facilities, technical infrastructure, or other equipment; or other threats that evolve. In addition, other parties may attempt to fraudulently or maliciously induce employees, contractors, vendors, or users to disclose information in order to gain access to our data or our users' data. Our AI initiatives and other efforts to develop and launch new features, products, and services in a timely manner may introduce additional risks and vulnerabilities that are not fully mitigated. In particular, our efforts to develop and deploy AI models, internal and third-party AI tools, and other AI applications expose us to increased and novel risks and vulnerabilities, including prompt injection, errors, and other issues related to AI agents, as well as compromise of valuable intellectual property including source code, model weights, and other assets. Cyber-attacks continue to evolve in sophistication and volume, and inherently may be difficult to detect for long periods of time. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect our data and user data, to reduce the risk of data loss or misuse, to disable undesirable accounts and activities on our platform, and to reduce the risk of or detect security breaches, such measures will not provide absolute security, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to react in a timely manner to any cyber-attacks or other security incidents, or that our remediation
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efforts will be successful. Our business and operations span numerous geographies around the world and involve thousands of employees, contractors, vendors, developers, partners, and other third parties, including AI and cloud services. At any given time, we face known and unknown cybersecurity risks and threats that are not fully mitigated, and we discover vulnerabilities in our security efforts.

In addition, some of our developers or other partners, such as those that help us measure the effectiveness of ads, may receive or store information provided by us or by our users through mobile or web applications integrated with our products. We provide limited information to such third parties based on the scope of services provided to us. However, if these third parties or developers fail to adopt or adhere to adequate data security practices, or in the event of a breach of their networks, our data or our users' data may be improperly accessed, used, or disclosed.

We regularly experience such cyber-attacks and other security incidents of varying degrees, and we incur significant costs in protecting against or remediating such incidents. In addition, we are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the United States and abroad relating to cybersecurity and data protection, including the GDPR and EU member state laws implementing the EU Cybersecurity Directive (NIS2), as well as obligations under our modified consent order with the FTC. As a result, government authorities, affected users, or other parties could initiate legal or regulatory actions against us in connection with any actual or perceived security breaches, improper access to or disclosure of data, or other cybersecurity issues, which has occurred in the past and which could cause us to incur significant expense and liability or result in orders or consent decrees forcing us to modify our business practices. Such incidents or our efforts to remediate such incidents may also result in a decline in our active user base or engagement levels. Any of these events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, reputation, or financial results.
Intentional misuse of our services and user data and other undesirable activity by third parties on our platform could adversely affect our business.

We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, intentional misuse of our services and user data by third parties, as well as other undesirable, illicit, or high-risk activity on our platform. We are making significant investments in privacy, safety, security, and content and advertising review efforts to combat these activities, including investigations and audits of platform applications, as well as other enforcement efforts. We have discovered and announced, and anticipate that we will continue to discover and announce, additional incidents of misuse of user data or other undesirable or illicit activity by third parties or malfeasant internal actors. We will not discover all such incidents or activity, whether as a result of our data or technical limitations, including our lack of visibility over our encrypted services, the scale of activity on our platform, the allocation of resources to other projects, or other factors, and we may be notified of such incidents or activity by the independent privacy assessor required under our modified consent order with the FTC, government authorities, the media, or other third parties.

Such incidents and activities include the use of user data or our systems in a manner inconsistent with our terms, contracts or policies, the existence of hacked, false or undesirable user accounts, election interference, improper advertising practices, activities that threaten people's safety or well-being on- or offline (such as acts of violence, terrorism, improper promotion or distribution of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs, human exploitation, child exploitation, and illegal gaming), instances of spamming, surveillance, scraping, data harvesting, unsecured datasets, or spreading misinformation, or other fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity. From time to time we are unsuccessful in our efforts to enforce our policies or otherwise prevent or remediate any such incidents. We may also be subject to increased risk as a result of the use of AI technologies in connection with such incidents and activities, or changes to our content policies and enforcement efforts from time to time.

Consequences of any of the foregoing developments include negative effects on user trust and engagement, harm to our reputation and brands, changes to our business practices in a manner adverse to our business, and adverse effects on our business and financial results. Such developments have subjected, and may in the future subject, us to additional litigation and regulatory inquiries, which could subject us to monetary penalties and damages, divert management's time and attention, and lead to enhanced regulatory oversight.
Our products and internal systems rely on software and hardware that is highly technical, and any errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities in these systems, or failures to address or mitigate technical limitations in our systems, could adversely affect our business.

Our products and internal systems rely on software and hardware, including software and hardware developed or
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maintained internally and/or by third parties (including public cloud providers, AI technologies and services, open source software, and the operating systems and browsers which users rely on to run our applications and access our systems), that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our products and internal systems depend on the ability of such software and hardware to store, retrieve, process, and manage immense amounts of data. The software and hardware on which we rely has contained, and will in the future contain, errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities, and our systems are subject to certain technical limitations that may compromise our ability to meet our objectives. Some errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities inherently may be difficult to detect and may only be discovered after the code has been released for external or internal use. We also face risks from errors, bugs, or vulnerabilities introduced through the use of AI to develop or maintain software or systems and the use of AI within those software and systems. Errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, design defects, or technical limitations within the software and hardware on which we rely, or human error or malfeasance in using such systems, have led to, and may in the future lead to, outcomes including a negative experience or other adverse effects for users and marketers who use our products, compromised ability of our products to perform in a manner consistent with our terms, contracts, or policies, delayed product introductions or enhancements, targeting, measurement, or billing errors, compromised ability to protect the data of our users and/or our intellectual property or other data or to address violating activity on our platform, or reductions in our ability to provide some or all of our services. For example, we make commitments to our users as to how their data will be collected, used, shared, and retained within and across our products, and our systems, and the software and hardware on which we rely, are subject to errors, bugs and technical limitations that may prevent us from fulfilling these commitments reliably. In addition, any errors, bugs, vulnerabilities, or defects in our systems or the software and hardware on which we rely, failures to properly address or mitigate the technical limitations in our systems, or associated degradations or interruptions of service or failures to fulfill our commitments to our users, have led to, and may in the future lead to, outcomes including damage to our reputation, loss of users, loss of marketers, loss of revenue, regulatory inquiries, litigation, or liability for fines, damages, or other remedies, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial results.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished, and our business may be adversely affected.

We rely and expect to continue to rely on a combination of confidentiality, assignment, and license agreements with our employees, consultants, and third parties with whom we have relationships, as well as trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, and domain name protection laws, to protect our proprietary rights. In the United States and internationally, we have filed various applications for protection of certain aspects of our intellectual property, and we currently hold a significant number of registered trademarks and issued patents in multiple jurisdictions and have acquired patents and patent applications from third parties. Third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us, and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be approved. In addition, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate our business. In any or all of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense in order to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights. Although we have generally taken measures to protect our proprietary rights, there can be no assurance that others will not offer products or concepts that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business. In addition, we regularly contribute software source code under open source and other permissive licenses and have made other technology we developed available under such licenses, and we include open source software in our products. Additionally, our AI is trained on data sets that may include open source software and the outputs of our AI may be subject to open source license restrictions or obligations. As a result of our open source contributions and the use of open source in our products, we may license or be required to license or disclose code and/or innovations that turn out to be material to our business and may also be exposed to increased litigation risk. If the protection of our proprietary rights is inadequate to prevent unauthorized use or appropriation by third parties, the value of our brands and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products, services, and methods of operations. Any of these events could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.

We are currently, and expect to be in the future, party to patent, trademark, and copyright lawsuits and other intellectual property rights claims that are expensive and time consuming and, if resolved adversely, could have a significant impact on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Companies in the internet, technology, and media industries own large numbers of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, and frequently enter into litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation, or other violations of intellectual property or other rights, including in novel areas such as those relating to AI training and AI outputs. In addition, various "non-practicing entities" that own patents and other intellectual property rights often attempt to aggressively assert their rights in order to extract value from technology companies. Furthermore, from time to time we may introduce or acquire new products, including in areas where we historically have not competed, or introduce new features for existing products,
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which could increase our exposure to intellectual property claims from competitors, non-practicing entities, and other rights holders.

From time to time, we receive notice from patent, copyright, and trademark holders and other parties alleging that certain of our products and services, trademarks, or user content, infringe their intellectual property rights or that certain employees may have misappropriated trade secrets from their former employers. We presently are involved in a number of intellectual property lawsuits, and as we face increasing competition and develop new products and services, we expect the number of intellectual property claims against us to grow. For example, we and other companies are, and expect to continue to be, the subject of litigation in the United States, Europe, Canada, and elsewhere alleging copyright infringement in connection with the acquisition, distribution, and use of copyrighted materials for AI training as well as potential reproduction of copyrighted materials in AI outputs, including cases addressing the applicability of the fair use defense in the United States. There can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained in these cases. In addition, plaintiffs may seek, and we may become subject to, preliminary or provisional rulings in the course of any such litigation, including potential preliminary injunctions requiring us to change or cease some or all of our operations. We may decide to settle such lawsuits and disputes on terms that are unfavorable to us. Similarly, if any litigation to which we are a party is resolved adversely, we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal. The terms of such a settlement or judgment may require us to change or cease some or all of our operations or pay substantial amounts to the other parties, including statutory damages to large numbers of copyright holders. For certain jurisdictions, including the United States, statutory damages for copyright liability are calculated on a per work basis, which may result in substantial damages, particularly given the large volumes of data required to train AI models. In addition, we may have to seek a license to continue practices found to be in violation of a third party's rights, which may not be available on reasonable terms, or at all, and may significantly increase our operating costs and expenses. As a result, we may also be required to develop alternative non-infringing technology or practices, or branding or discontinue the practices or branding. The development of alternative non-infringing technology, branding or practices could require significant effort and expense, could result in less effective technology, branding or practices or otherwise negatively affect the user experience, or may not be feasible. We have experienced unfavorable outcomes in such disputes and litigation in the past, and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected as a result of an unfavorable resolution of the disputes and litigation referred to above.
Risks Related to Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock
The trading price of our Class A common stock has been and will likely continue to be volatile.

The trading price of our Class A common stock has been, and is likely to continue to be, volatile. Since shares of our Class A common stock were sold in our initial public offering in May 2012 at a price of $38.00 per share, our stock price has ranged from $17.55 to $796.25 through December 31, 2025. In addition to the factors discussed in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the trading price of our Class A common stock has in the past fluctuated and may in the future fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
• actual or anticipated fluctuations in our revenue and other operating results for either of our reportable segments;
• the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections, or our failure to meet these projections;
• actions of securities analysts who initiate or maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
• additional shares of our stock being sold into the market by us, our existing stockholders, or in connection with acquisitions, or the anticipation of such sales;
• investor sentiment with respect to our competitors, our business partners, and our industry in general;
• announcements by us or our competitors of significant products or features, technical innovations, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or capital commitments;
• announcements by us or estimates by third parties of actual or anticipated changes in the size of our user base, the level of user engagement, or the effectiveness of our ad products;
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• changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of technology companies in our industry, including our developers and competitors;
• price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
• the inclusion, exclusion, or deletion of our stock from any trading indices, such as the S&P 500 Index;
• media coverage of our business and financial performance;
• lawsuits threatened or filed against us, or developments in pending lawsuits;
• adverse government actions or legislative or regulatory developments relating to advertising, competition, content, privacy, or other matters, including interim or final rulings by tax, judicial, or regulatory bodies;
• trading activity in our share repurchase program; and
• other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism, pandemics, and other disruptive external events, or responses to these events.

In addition, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many technology companies. We are currently subject to securities litigation in connection with our platform and user data practices and the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies; the disclosure of our earnings results for the second quarter of 2018; a former employee's allegations and release of internal company documents beginning in September 2021; and the disclosure of our earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2021. We may experience more such litigation following future periods of volatility. Any securities litigation could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, and adversely affect our business.
The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with our CEO and certain other holders of our Class B common stock; this will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters.

Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share and our Class A common stock has one vote per share. Holders of our Class B common stock, including our founder, Chairman, and CEO, together hold a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock, and therefore are able to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of Class B common stock represent at least 9.1% of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters for the foreseeable future.

Transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for estate planning or charitable purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long term. If, for example, Mr. Zuckerberg retains a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he could, in the future, continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our outstanding capital stock.
Our status as a "controlled company" could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

Because we qualify as a "controlled company" under the corporate governance rules for Nasdaq-listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. In the future we could elect not to have a majority of our board of directors be independent or not to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. Accordingly, should the interests of our controlling stockholder differ from those of other stockholders, the other stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance rules for Nasdaq-listed companies. Our status as a controlled company could make our Class A common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.
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Delaware law and provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws could make a merger, tender offer, or proxy contest difficult, thereby depressing the trading price of our Class A common stock.

Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law may discourage, delay, or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our current certificate of incorporation and bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of our company more difficult, including the following:
• until the first date on which the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than 35% of the combined voting power of our common stock, any transaction that would result in a change in control of our company requires the approval of a majority of our outstanding Class B common stock voting as a separate class;
• we currently have a dual class common stock structure, which provides Mr. Zuckerberg with the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if he owns significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A and Class B common stock;
• when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of common stock, certain amendments to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws will require the approval of two-thirds of the combined vote of our then-outstanding shares of Class A and Class B common stock;
• when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, vacancies on our board of directors will be able to be filled only by our board of directors and not by stockholders;
• when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, our board of directors will be classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms and directors will only be able to be removed from office for cause;
• when the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock represent less than a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock, our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and not by written consent;
• only our board chair, our chief executive officer, our president, or a majority of our board of directors are authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;
• advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders;
• our certificate of incorporation authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established, and shares of which may be issued, without stockholder approval; and
• certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 1C. Cybersecurity

At Meta, cybersecurity risk management is an important part of our overall risk management efforts. Our industry is prone to cybersecurity threats and attacks, and we regularly experience cybersecurity incidents of varying degrees. We believe we are a particularly attractive target as a result of our prominence and scale, the types and volume of personal data and content on our systems, and the evolving nature of our products and services. Our products and services reach billions of users and involve the collection, storage, processing, and transmission of a large amount of data. In addition, our business and operations span numerous geographies around the world, involve thousands of employees, contractors, vendors, developers,
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partners, and other third parties, and rely on software and hardware that is highly technical and complex. Our cybersecurity environment continues to evolve, including as we develop and deploy AI models, tools, and other applications and increase our use of public cloud and other third-party services. We maintain an information security program that is comprised of policies and controls designed to mitigate cybersecurity risk. However, at any given time, we face known and unknown cybersecurity risks and threats that are not fully mitigated, and we discover vulnerabilities in our program. We continuously work to enhance our information security program and risk management efforts.

We use a risk management framework based on applicable laws and regulations, and informed by industry standards and industry-recognized practices, for managing cybersecurity risks within our products and services, infrastructure, and corporate resources. To identify and assess risks from cybersecurity threats, we evaluate a variety of developments including threat intelligence, first- and third-party vulnerabilities, evolving regulatory requirements, and observed cybersecurity incidents, among others. We regularly conduct risk assessments to evaluate the maturity and effectiveness of our systems and processes in addressing cybersecurity threats and to identify areas for remediation and opportunities for enhancements. We also engage third-party security experts and consultants to assist with assessment and enhancement of our cybersecurity risk management processes, as well as benchmarking against industry practices. In addition, we operate a Bug Bounty program that invites independent cybersecurity researchers to investigate and explore potential security vulnerabilities in our products and report their findings to us. However, we may not be successful in fully addressing any such areas for remediation or enhancement. In addition, we maintain a privacy risk management program to assess privacy risks related to how we are collecting, using, sharing, and storing user data, which is subject to assessment by an independent, third-party privacy assessor. Our internal audit function provides independent assessment and assurance on the overall operations of our cybersecurity and privacy programs and the supporting control frameworks. These processes support informed risk-based decision-making and prioritization of cybersecurity countermeasures and risk mitigation strategies. Our risk mitigation strategies include a broad variety of technical and operational measures, as well as annual cybersecurity and privacy training for all of our employees.

In addition, we maintain specific policies and practices governing our third-party security risks, including our third-party assessment (TPA) process. Under our TPA process, we gather information from certain third parties who contract with Meta and share or receive data, or have access to or integrate with our systems, in order to help us assess potential risks associated with their security controls. We also generally require third parties to, among other things, maintain security controls to protect our confidential information and data, and notify us of material data breaches that may impact our data.

Our board of directors has oversight of our strategic and business risk management and has delegated cybersecurity risk management oversight to the Audit & Privacy Committee of our board of directors (Audit & Privacy Committee). Our Audit & Privacy Committee is responsible for ensuring that management has processes in place designed to identify and evaluate cybersecurity risks to which the company is exposed and to implement processes and programs to manage cybersecurity risks and mitigate cybersecurity incidents. In addition, the Audit & Privacy Committee oversees risks related to privacy and data use, including overseeing compliance with our comprehensive privacy program. Management is responsible for identifying, assessing, and managing material cybersecurity risks on an ongoing basis, establishing processes to ensure that such potential cybersecurity risk exposures are monitored, putting in place appropriate mitigation measures, maintaining cybersecurity policies and procedures, and providing regular reports to our board of directors, including through the Audit & Privacy Committee.

Our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Guy Rosen, leads our cybersecurity program and oversees teams across the company supporting core security capabilities. These teams are comprised of personnel with a broad range of experience across the private and public sectors, the technology industry, and different geographic regions. Mr. Rosen has two decades of experience in various cybersecurity, software development, product management, and other technology-related roles. Mr. Rosen has served in a number of significant leadership roles at our company since 2013, including oversight of security, safety, and integrity initiatives, and was appointed as our CISO in 2022. Prior to joining our company, Mr. Rosen served in senior leadership, engineering, and operational roles across technology organizations.

Our cybersecurity teams monitor the prevention, detection, mitigation, and remediation of cybersecurity incidents through a variety of technical and operational measures, and regularly report to our CISO. Our CISO is part of the senior management team at the company and regularly updates the Audit & Privacy Committee on our cybersecurity program, including cybersecurity risks, incidents, and mitigation strategies.

In 2025, we did not identify any cybersecurity threats that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. However, despite our efforts, we cannot
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eliminate all risks from cybersecurity threats, or provide assurances that we have not experienced undetected cybersecurity incidents. For additional information about these risks, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Item 2. Properties

Our corporate headquarters are located in Menlo Park, California. As of December 31, 2025, we owned and leased approximately 10 million square feet of office and building space for our corporate headquarters and in the surrounding areas, which included approximately two million square feet of unoccupied office and building space that we plan to either sublease, early terminate, or abandon. We also owned and leased approximately 62 acres of land to be developed to accommodate anticipated future growth.

In addition, we have offices in more than 90 cities across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. We own 30 data center locations globally and we also lease some data centers at selected locations.

We believe that our facilities, which are used by both reportable segments, are adequate for our current needs.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

As a multinational company with a complex and evolving business, we are, and expect to continue to be, subject to numerous claims, litigation, regulatory, tax, and government inquiries and investigations, and other legal proceedings in jurisdictions around the world. Although we believe many of these matters are without merit and are vigorously defending them, we may not be successful. Any litigation to which we are a party may be resolved adversely or we may be subject to an unfavorable judgment that may not be reversed upon appeal. We may also decide to settle litigation, disputes, or other legal proceedings in some instances on terms that are unfavorable to us. In addition, we may become subject to orders or consent decrees imposed by government or regulatory authorities. Any such developments could cause us to incur substantial costs, expose us to civil and criminal liability (including liability for our personnel) or penalties (including substantial monetary remedies), interrupt or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business (including changes to our products and services or user data practices), result in negative publicity and reputational harm, divert resources and the time and attention of management from our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral remedies that adversely affect our business. We have experienced such outcomes to varying degrees in the past, and we expect to continue to face a challenging litigation and regulatory environment, including in light of complex and evolving laws and regulations, as well as the scale of our business and the size of our user and advertiser base.

Over the last several years, the number and potential significance of the litigation and investigations involving the company have increased, and there can be no assurance that this trend will not continue. For example, we are facing numerous cases in the United States in which plaintiffs are attempting to avoid or limit the application of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to their claims and certain of those matters have survived motions to dismiss, including through the use of products liability and/or breach of contract theories. Outside of the United States, we are subject to relatively new regulatory regimes, including the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, EU AI Act and similar statutes in non-EU countries such as the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act, and new fining guidelines under existing regulatory regimes like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are facing inquiries and investigations regarding various aspects of our regulatory compliance, as well as private litigation in Europe, including class and mass actions, claiming damages (including for loss of control of data without other damage) and/or injunctions in respect of alleged failings to comply with such regulatory requirements. We are also responding to litigation and government investigations related to our alleged role in causing or contributing to various societal harms, including mental and physical health and safety impacts on users, particularly younger users, child and adult sexual exploitation, illegal activity with respect to drugs, fraud, unlawful discrimination, and other harms potentially impacting large numbers of people. This is in addition to significant tax, competition and antitrust, stockholder, commercial, consumer, intellectual property, and privacy litigation and investigations. Furthermore, as the number of our users and amount of our revenue have grown, our potential exposure to substantial damages awards and fines has increased, including through class action litigations and other legal proceedings under statutory regimes permitting penalties or damages on a per-violation basis or based on a percentage of global revenue. The maximum aggregate monetary damages or penalties sought across our various legal proceedings could amount to an aggregate of up to hundreds of billions of dollars and, as a result, could be material to the financial condition of the company.

In some instances, particularly with novel legal and factual claims, new regulatory regimes or statutes that have not previously been enforced, or where the nature or type of enforcement pursued against us is novel, it can be very difficult to assess the likelihood or extent of potential liabilities, including the nature and extent of injunctive or other non-monetary relief and the applicability and amount of any potential forfeitures, disgorgement, fines or penalties. While we have identified
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below certain matters that we believe to be material, there can be no assurance that additional material losses or limitations on our activities will not result from claims that have not yet been asserted or are not yet determined to be material.

Privacy and Related Matters

Beginning on March 20, 2018, multiple putative class actions were filed in state and federal courts in the United States and elsewhere against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging various causes of action in connection with our platform and user data practices as well as the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies, and seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. With respect to the putative class actions alleging fraud and violations of consumer protection, privacy, and other laws in connection with the same matters, several of the cases brought on behalf of consumers in the United States were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( In re Facebook, Inc., Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation ). On December 22, 2022, the parties entered into a settlement agreement to resolve the lawsuit, which provided for a payment of $725 million by us and became final on May 14, 2025. In addition, our platform and user data practices, as well as the events surrounding the misuse of certain data by a developer, became the subject of U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general, and other government inquiries in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. We entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the FTC inquiry, which took effect in April 2020 and required us to pay a penalty of $5.0 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight. In addition, in December 2025, we entered into a settlement agreement with California to resolve its lawsuit alleging violations of consumer protection laws, which is subject to court approval. Certain other state attorneys general inquiries and litigation and certain government inquiries in other jurisdictions remain ongoing and could subject us to additional substantial fines and costs, require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, or adversely affect our business. On June 1, 2023, the court presiding over the lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia granted our motion for summary judgment, resolving the case in our favor. On June 29, 2023, the District of Columbia filed a notice of appeal. The appeal was heard on January 30, 2025 and on July 31, 2025, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals reversed the decision on procedural grounds and remanded the matter to the lower court. Trial in the New Mexico Attorney General's case, which has expanded to include various claims related to content moderation issues, is scheduled to begin on September 8, 2026. On July 16, 2021, a stockholder derivative action was filed in Delaware Court of Chancery against certain of our directors and officers asserting breach of fiduciary duty and related claims relating to our historical platform and user data practices, as well as our settlement with the FTC. On July 20, 2021, other stockholders filed an amended derivative complaint in a related Delaware Chancery Court action, asserting breach of fiduciary duty and related claims against certain of our current and former directors and officers in connection with our historical platform and user data practices. On November 4, 2021, the lead plaintiffs filed a second amended and consolidated complaint in the stockholder derivative action. The pending consolidated matter is In re Facebook Inc. Derivative Litigation . On January 19, 2022, we filed a motion to dismiss, which was denied in part on May 10, 2023. The insider trading claim was dismissed as to all defendants except Mark Zuckerberg, and the motion was denied as to the breach of fiduciary duty claims. Trial began on July 16, 2025. On July 17, 2025, the parties agreed to a settlement in principle to resolve all claims in the action, which is subject to court approval.

On May 3, 2023, the FTC filed a public administrative proceeding ( In the Matter of Facebook, Inc. ) seeking substantial changes to the modified consent order, which took effect in April 2020 after its entry by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The changes sought by the FTC are set forth in a proposed order and include, among others, a prohibition on our use of minors' data for any commercial purposes, changes to the composition of our board of directors, and significant limitations on our ability to modify and launch new products. On May 31, 2023, we filed a motion before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to enjoin the FTC from further pursuing its agency process to modify the modified consent order. On November 27, 2023, the district court denied our motion, and we then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ( U.S. v. Facebook, Inc. ) and sought to stay the FTC proceeding pending resolution of the appeal. Our motion for a stay pending appeal was denied in March 2024. After the underlying appeal was briefed and oral argument was held on November 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its decision on May 16, 2025, reversing the district court's denial of our motion on jurisdictional grounds, and directed the district court to consider the merits of our arguments. On July 10, 2025, the case was remanded to the district court to consider our claims in light of the Court of Appeals' determination that the district court retains jurisdiction over the entirety of the consent order. On December 23, 2025, the district court ordered a schedule for supplemental briefing in light of the Court of Appeals decision, with briefing due to be complete by May 2026.

On November 29, 2023, we separately filed a complaint, also in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ( Meta Platforms, Inc. v. FTC ), asserting constitutional challenges to the structure of the FTC, and seeking to preliminarily enjoin the FTC proceeding during the pendency of the litigation. On December 13, 2023, the FTC filed an opposition to our
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motion for preliminary injunction and a motion to dismiss the complaint. On March 14, 2024, the district court denied our motion to preliminarily enjoin the FTC proceeding during the pendency of the litigation, and also denied the FTC's motion to dismiss our complaint without prejudice, pending the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in SEC v. Jarkesy ( Jarkesy ). Our motion for a stay of the FTC proceeding pending appeal was denied in March 2024. Both the district court action and the appeal were stayed pending the Supreme Court's decision in Jarkesy . Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Jarkesy on June 27, 2024, the government filed a renewed motion to dismiss, which was fully briefed as of October 18, 2024. On June 29, 2025, the district court granted our request for a stay in light of the Court of Appeals' May 16, 2025 decision in the jurisdictional case, and on January 20, 2026, the district court continued the stay and ordered the parties to file a status update by June 8, 2026.

On April 1, 2024, we filed our response to the FTC's Order to Show Cause, arguing, among other things, that the Order to Show Cause proceeding was legally improper. Per FTC orders, we completed briefing on threshold legal issues on July 18, 2024, and the FTC held oral argument before the Commissioners on those issues on November 12, 2024. On January 10, 2025, the Commission issued a decision on certain threshold legal issues, including that the Commission has statutory authority to modify consent orders. The Commission stated that its decision is subject to Meta's jurisdictional challenges then pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in U.S. v. Facebook, Inc. , and that the nature and scope of any further administrative proceedings would be addressed at a later date. On July 30, 2025, the Commission issued an order staying the Order to Show Cause proceeding pending final resolution of the two judicial cases we filed challenging the proceeding. Through the administrative process, the FTC could amend the order to impose the additional requirements set forth in the proposed order. We should have the opportunity to appeal an FTC decision modifying the order and could request the appellate court to stay the enforcement of the modifications to the order while the appeal is pending. It is unclear whether the appeal or the request for a stay would be successful.

We also notify the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC), our lead European Union privacy regulator under the GDPR, of certain other personal data breaches and privacy issues, issue similar notifications to European regulators under other laws (such as UK GDPR and Member State implementations of the ePrivacy Directive), and are subject to inquiries and investigations by the IDPC and other European regulators regarding various aspects of our regulatory compliance. For example, the IDPC is continuing to assess the compliance of our "subscription for no ads" consent model with requirements under the GDPR. In addition, on May 12, 2023, the IDPC issued a Final Decision concluding that Meta Platforms Ireland's reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses in respect of certain transfers of European Economic Area (EEA) Facebook user data was not in compliance with the GDPR. The IDPC issued an administrative fine of EUR €1.2 billion as well as corrective orders requiring Meta Platforms Ireland to suspend the relevant transfers and to bring its processing operations into compliance with Chapter V GDPR by ceasing the unlawful processing, including storage, of such data in the United States. We are appealing this Final Decision and it is currently subject to a stay from the Irish High Court. We have also implemented steps to comply with the above corrective orders and are pending the IDPC's confirmation that these address the corrective orders. For additional information, see Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors—Our business is subject to complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy, data use, data combination, data protection, content, competition, youth, safety, consumer protection, advertising, e-commerce, and other matters" in this Annual Report on Form 10‑K. Any such inquiries or investigations (including the IDPC proceedings) could subject us to substantial fines and costs, require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, lead to additional claims from users, or adversely affect our business. In addition, we are subject to individual and class actions in Europe relating to matters that are or have been the subject of regulatory investigations.

Beginning on June 7, 2021, multiple putative class actions were filed against us alleging that we improperly received individuals' information from third-party websites or apps via our business tools in violation of our terms and various state and federal laws and seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief (for example, In re Meta Pixel Healthcare Litigation; In re Meta Pixel Tax Filing Cases; Frasco v. Flo Health, Inc.; Doe v. Hey Favor, Inc. et al.; Doe v. GoodRx Holdings, Inc. et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; and Rickwalder, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc. in the Santa Clara County Superior Court). These cases are in different stages, but several of our motions to dismiss have been denied in whole or in part, while certain others have been granted in whole or in part. In Rickwalder , the Superior Court denied plaintiffs' motion for class certification and the plaintiffs have appealed that decision. In Flo Health , on August 1, 2025, a jury returned a verdict on liability in favor of the plaintiffs and on behalf of a California subclass on the sole claim remaining against Meta under Section 632 of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Plaintiffs are seeking $5,000 in statutory damages per class member and have asserted that there are up to approximately 1.6 million class members. The amount of potential damages is uncertain at this time. In addition, we are subject to individual and class actions in Europe, as well as regulatory investigations in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, relating to similar matters with regard to our business tools.

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Competition

We are subject to various litigation and government inquiries and investigations, formal or informal, by competition authorities in the United States, Europe, and other jurisdictions. Such investigations, inquiries, and lawsuits concern, among other things, our business practices in the areas of social networking or social media services, digital advertising, and/or mobile or online applications, as well as our acquisitions. For example, in 2019 we became the subject of antitrust investigations by the FTC and U.S. Department of Justice. On December 9, 2020, the FTC filed a complaint ( FTC v. Meta Platforms, Inc. ) against us in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that we engaged in anticompetitive conduct and unfair methods of competition in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and Section 2 of the Sherman Act, including by acquiring Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and by maintaining conditions on access to our platform. The FTC sought a permanent injunction against our company's alleged violations of the antitrust laws, and other equitable relief, including divestiture or reconstruction of Instagram and WhatsApp. On June 28, 2021, the court granted our motion to dismiss the complaint filed by the FTC with leave to amend. On August 19, 2021, the FTC filed an amended complaint, and on October 4, 2021, we filed a motion to dismiss this amended complaint. On January 11, 2022, the court denied our motion to dismiss the FTC's amended complaint. On April 5, 2024, we filed our motion for summary judgment and the FTC filed its opposition and its own motion for partial summary judgment on May 24, 2024. On November 13, 2024, the court granted in part and denied in part both our and the FTC's motions for summary judgment. Trial began on April 14, 2025 and concluded on May 27, 2025. On November 18, 2025, the court granted judgment in our favor. On January 20, 2026, the FTC filed a notice of appeal of that ruling. Multiple putative class actions have also been filed in state and federal courts in the United States and in the United Kingdom against us alleging violations of antitrust laws and other causes of action in connection with these acquisitions and/or other alleged anticompetitive conduct, and seeking damages and injunctive relief. Several of the cases brought on behalf of certain advertisers and users in the United States were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( Klein et al., v. Meta Platforms, Inc. ). On December 30, 2024, we filed our motion for summary judgment in the putative class action brought on behalf of certain advertisers, which is pending with the court. On January 24, 2025, the court denied plaintiffs' motion for class certification in the action brought on behalf of users, permitting it to proceed only on an individual basis as to the named plaintiffs. On September 29, 2025, in the user action, the court granted our motion, entering judgment in our favor. On October 27, 2025, plaintiffs in the user action filed a notice of appeal.

On February 11, 2022, a putative class action was filed against us in the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) under the UK collective proceedings regime ( Lovdahl-Gormsen v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al. ). On October 6, 2023, following the denial of class certification, the class representative submitted an amended claim alleging abuse of dominance relating to aspects of our data processing practices and seeking damages. The CAT certified the amended claim on February 15, 2024. Trial is scheduled to begin in September 2027.

We are also subject to litigation in Europe brought by news and media companies alleging anticompetitive conduct in relation to aspects of our historic data processing practices. For example, on December 1, 2023, 87 news media companies filed a joint action against us in Spain in relation to our legal basis under the GDPR for behavioral advertising, alleging unfair competition and abuse of dominance ( Asociacion de Medios de Informacion (AMI) v. Meta Ireland ). On November 19, 2025, the court issued judgment against us, finding that AMI had failed to establish abuse of dominance but upholding its case on unfair competition and awarding damages of approximately EUR €542 million. We have appealed the decision. In addition, on October 24, 2024, ten radio and television publishers commenced a separate claim against us in Spain on the same basis ( Union de Televisiones Comerciales Asociadas (UTECA) v. Meta Ireland ). In addition, on April 29, 2025, a similar unfair competition claim was filed against us by 67 media companies in France ( Amaury et al. v. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited ). Trial is expected to take place in 2027.

In December 2022, the European Commission issued a Statement of Objections alleging that we tie Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and use data in a manner that infringes European Union competition rules. On November 18, 2024, the European Commission issued a decision that Meta infringed Article 102 on the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union in relation to certain alleged business practices relating to Facebook Marketplace and imposed a fine of approximately EUR €798 million. We appealed the European Commission's decision on January 28, 2025.

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In March 2024, the European Commission opened an investigation into the compliance of our "subscription for no ads" consent model with requirements under Article 5(2) of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission issued preliminary findings on July 1, 2024 reflecting its preliminary view that our model does not comply with such requirements. In April 2025, the European Commission issued a final decision that our "subscription for no ads" model does not comply with such requirements and imposed a fine of EUR €200 million. Based on feedback from the European Commission in connection with the DMA, we launched less personalized ads (LPA) in November 2024 and made significant modifications to LPA since the European Commission issued its final decision. We appealed the European Commission's decision on July 4, 2025, but further modifications to our model may be imposed during the appeal process, which could result in a materially worse user experience for European users and a significant impact to our European business and revenue.

The result of such litigation, investigations or inquiries could subject us to substantial monetary remedies and costs, interrupt or require us to change our business practices, divert resources and the attention of management from our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral remedies that adversely affect our business.

Securities and Other Actions

Beginning on March 20, 2018, multiple putative class actions and derivative actions were filed in state and federal courts in the United States and elsewhere against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws, breach of fiduciary duties, and other causes of action in connection with our platform and user data practices as well as the misuse of certain data by a developer that shared such data with third parties in violation of our terms and policies, and seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. Beginning on July 27, 2018, two putative class actions were filed in federal court in the United States against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws in connection with the disclosure of our earnings results for the second quarter of 2018 and seeking unspecified damages. These two actions subsequently were transferred and consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( In Re Facebook, Inc. Securities Litigation ) with the putative securities class action described above relating to our platform and user data practices. In a series of orders in 2019 and 2020, the district court granted our motions to dismiss the plaintiffs' claims. On January 17, 2022, the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal of the order dismissing their case, and on October 18, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decision affirming in part and reversing in part the district court's order dismissing the plaintiffs' case. We filed a petition for writ of certiorari on March 4, 2024 with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking review of the Ninth Circuit's order. The Supreme Court granted in part our petition for writ of certiorari on June 10, 2024, and following oral argument issued an order on November 22, 2024 dismissing the grant of certiorari as improvidently granted. On January 24, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit returned the case to the district court. On July 1, 2025, the plaintiffs filed a fourth amended complaint. On September 2, 2025, we filed a motion to dismiss the fourth amended complaint.

We are also subject to other government inquiries and investigations relating to our business activities and disclosure practices. For example, beginning in September 2021, we became subject to government investigations and requests relating to a former employee's allegations and release of internal company documents concerning, among other things, our algorithms, advertising and user metrics, and content enforcement practices, as well as misinformation and other undesirable activity on our platform, and user well-being. We have since received additional requests relating to these and other topics. Beginning on October 27, 2021, multiple putative class actions and derivative actions were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws, breach of fiduciary duties, and other causes of action in connection with the same matters, and seeking unspecified damages ( Ohio Pub. Empl. Ret. Sys. v. Meta Platforms, Inc .). On September 30, 2024, the court dismissed certain claims with leave to amend, but determined certain claims regarding content enforcement practices and user well-being could proceed against us and certain of our current and former directors and officers.

On March 8, 2022, a putative class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against us and certain of our directors and officers alleging violations of securities laws in connection with the disclosure of our earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2021 and seeking unspecified damages ( Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 60 Pension Trust v. Meta Platforms, Inc. ). On July 18, 2023, the court dismissed the claims against Meta and its officers with leave to amend. On September 18, 2023, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint and on September 17, 2024, the court dismissed the claims with prejudice. On October 14, 2024, plaintiffs filed their notice of appeal and oral argument was held on January 6, 2026.

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Youth-Related Actions

Beginning in January 2022, we became subject to litigation and other proceedings that were filed in various federal and state courts in the United States as well as other jurisdictions alleging that Facebook and Instagram cause "social media addiction" in users, with most proceedings focused on those under 18 years old, resulting in various mental health and other harms. Putative class actions have been filed in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere on behalf of users in those jurisdictions, and numerous school districts, municipalities, and tribal nations have filed public nuisance claims in the United States, Brazil, and/or Canada based on similar allegations. On October 6, 2022, the U.S. federal cases were centralized in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction Product Liability Personal Injury Litigation ). Beginning in March 2023, U.S. states and territories began filing lawsuits on these topics in various federal and state courts. These additional lawsuits include allegations regarding violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), child sexual abuse material and other child safety concerns, as well as violations of state consumer protection laws, unfair business practices, public nuisance, and products liability, with proceedings focused on our alleged business practices (including the use of end-to-end encryption) and harms to users under 18 years old. Certain of the lawsuits described above have since expanded to include various other claims relating to our services, including with respect to age verification, AI and AI chatbots, deceptive advertising, illicit or illegal activity with respect to drugs, fraud, and firearms, and privacy-related matters, among others. These lawsuits seek damages and injunctive relief, and include cases filed by various state attorneys general in In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction Product Liability Personal Injury Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as well as various state courts around the country. Trial in the first of the personal injury cases began on January 27, 2026 in Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 5255 pending in Los Angeles County California Superior Court. Trial in the first of the state attorneys general cases is currently scheduled to begin on February 2, 2026 in the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico, in a case brought by the New Mexico Attorney General. Trials in other state attorneys general cases are currently scheduled or expected to be scheduled in the second half of 2026 or in 2027. The first trial in the multidistrict litigation ( In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction Product Liability Personal Injury Litigation ) is a school district bellwether case and is scheduled to begin on June 15, 2026. Across the cases described above, the damages or penalties that plaintiffs have indicated they intend to seek range widely in amount, including in certain cases up to the high tens of billions of dollars. In addition, beginning in November 2024, counsel for over one hundred thousand individual claimants have sent mass arbitration demands relating to "social media addiction" and related harms allegedly caused by Instagram.

We are also subject to government investigations and requests from multiple regulators in various jurisdictions globally concerning the use of our products and services, and the alleged mental and physical health and safety and privacy impacts on users, particularly younger users, as well as the accuracy of our statements about youth and parental features. On May 16, 2024, the European Commission opened formal proceedings assessing our compliance with certain requirements under Articles 28, 34, and 35 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), including the way in which we identified, assessed, and mitigated against certain systemic risks to minors and other vulnerable users that may stem from the design and functioning of Instagram and Facebook.

Other Actions

Beginning on August 15, 2018, multiple putative class actions were filed against us alleging that we inflated our estimates of the potential audience size for advertisements, resulting in artificially increased demand and higher prices. The cases were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( DZ Reserve v. Facebook, Inc. ) and seek unspecified damages and injunctive relief. In a series of rulings in 2019, 2021, and 2022, the court dismissed certain of the plaintiffs' claims, but permitted their fraud and unfair competition claims to proceed. On March 29, 2022, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion for class certification. On March 21, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the order granting class certification. On May 3, 2024, we filed a petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc, which was denied by the Ninth Circuit. We filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on October 2, 2024, which was denied. We then moved to compel arbitration, which the district court denied. We appealed the denial of our motion to compel arbitration to the Ninth Circuit on December 3, 2025. The matter is stayed in district court pending resolution of our appeal.

Beginning on July 7, 2023, multiple cases, including putative class actions, were filed against us in the United States and elsewhere, alleging that we improperly acquired, distributed, and used various copyrighted materials and/or other types of data to train our artificial intelligence models and seeking unspecified damages and injunctive relief. In the United States, statutory damages for copyright liability are calculated on a per work basis, which may result in substantial damages, particularly given the large volumes of data required to train AI models. The cases in the United States, which were filed in
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the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( Kadrey, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., Chabon, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Farnsworth v. Meta Platforms, Inc. ) and U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ( Huckabee, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al. , which was subsequently transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California), have been consolidated into Kadrey, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc . Motions for summary judgment were heard in this case on May 1, 2025, including on the issue of the applicability of the fair use defense to use of copyrighted books for generative AI model training. On June 25, 2025, the court granted our motion for summary judgment on fair use as to the named plaintiffs in the case. The parties will proceed to brief the remaining claim of copyright infringement due to alleged distribution of books to third parties during the downloading process. The court is scheduled to hear summary judgment motions on July 16, 2026. Beginning in November 2025, additional cases with similar claims were filed against us in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ( Entrepreneur Media v. Meta Platforms, Inc., Carreyrou et al. v. Anthropic PBC, et al. and TED Entertainment, Inc. v. Meta Platforms, Inc .). We expect some of these cases will be set for trial beginning in mid-2027.

On April 30, 2024, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against us to assess Facebook and Instagram's compliance with certain requirements under Articles 14, 16, 17, 20, 24, 25, 34, 35, and 40 of the DSA, regarding a range of topics including elections, content reporting and appeals, third-party access to data, political content recommendations, potential deceptive advertising and disinformation, including the way in which we identified, assessed, and mitigated against certain systemic risks on Instagram and Facebook. The Commission issued preliminary findings with respect to some of these topics on October 24, 2025 reflecting its preliminary view that we have infringed DSA obligations related to notice and action mechanisms for illegal content reporting, content moderation decision appeals, and data access for researchers. We have an opportunity to respond to the preliminary findings, and would also have an opportunity to appeal a final decision by the Commission. We are also responding to regulatory inquiries and litigation related to allegedly deceptive advertising, including but not limited to financial scams and the use of our services to promote deceptive activity, in other parts of the world.

We are also subject to other litigation and government inquiries and investigations relating to advertising on our platform and our alleged role in causing or contributing to various societal harms, including illegal activity with respect to drugs, fraud, deceptive activity, unlawful discrimination, and other harms potentially impacting large numbers of people. We have received additional requests relating to these and other topics including in connection with news outlet reporting regarding these issues in the fourth quarter of 2025.

In addition, we are subject to litigation and other proceedings involving law enforcement and other regulatory agencies, including in particular in Brazil, Russia, and other countries in Europe, in order to ascertain the precise scope of our legal obligations to comply with the requests of those agencies, including our obligation to disclose user information in particular circumstances. A number of such instances have resulted in the assessment of fines and penalties against us. We believe we have multiple legal grounds to satisfy these requests or prevail against associated fines and penalties, and we intend to vigorously defend such fines and penalties.

We are also party to various other legal proceedings, claims, and regulatory, tax or government inquiries and investigations that arise in the ordinary course of business, and we expect to be subject to additional legal proceedings and disputes in the future.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.
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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information for Common Stock

Our Class A common stock is trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol 'META'. Our Class B common stock is not listed on any stock exchange nor traded on any public market.

Holders of Record

As of December 31, 2025, there were 2,533 stockholders of record of our Class A common stock, and the closing price of our Class A common stock was $660.09 per share as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Because many of our shares of Class A common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders. As of December 31, 2025, there were 25 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock.

Dividend Policy

Beginning in 2024, our board of directors declared quarterly cash dividends to the holders of our Class A and Class B common stock. During the year ended December 31, 2025, total dividend and dividend equivalent payments were $4.60 billion and $720 million for Class A and Class B common stock, respectively.

Subject to legally available funds and future declaration by our board of directors, we currently intend to continue to pay a quarterly cash dividend on our outstanding common stock. The declaration and payment of future dividends is at the sole discretion of our board of directors after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, available cash, and current and anticipated cash needs.

See Note 12 — Stockholders' Equity in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding dividends.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

There was no share repurchase activity during the three months ended December 31, 2025.

Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities and Use of Proceeds

Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities
None.

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Stock Performance Graph

This performance graph shall not be deemed "soliciting material" or to be "filed" with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any filing of Meta Platforms, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

The following graph shows a comparison of the cumulative total return for our Class A common stock, the Dow Jones Internet Composite Index (DJINET), the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index (S&P 500) and the Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq Composite) for the five years ended December 31, 2025. The annual changes for the five-year period shown in the graph assumes that $100 was invested in our common stock and each index at the market close on the last trading day for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and that all dividends were reinvested. The stock price performance of the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

Item 6. [Reserved]
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Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In addition to our historical consolidated financial information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, particularly in Part I, Item 1A, "Risk Factors." For a discussion of limitations in the measurement of our Family metrics, see the section entitled "Limitations of Key Metrics and Other Data" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), we present revenue on a constant currency basis and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP financial measures. Revenue on a constant currency basis is presented in the section entitled " — Revenue — Foreign Exchange Impact on Revenue." To calculate revenue on a constant currency basis, we translated revenue for the full year 2025 using 2024 monthly exchange rates for our settlement or billing currencies other than the U.S. dollar. For a full description of our free cash flow non-GAAP measure, see the section entitled " — Liquidity and Capital Resources—Free Cash Flow."

These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures may be different from non‑GAAP financial measures used by other companies, limiting their usefulness for comparison purposes. Moreover, presentation of revenue on a constant currency basis is provided for year-over-year comparison purposes, and investors should be cautioned that the effect of changing foreign currency exchange rates has an actual effect on our operating results. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with useful supplemental information about the financial performance of our business, enable comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independent of business performance, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business.

Executive Overview of Full Year 2025 Results

Our mission is to build the future of human connection and the technology that makes it possible.

Our financial results and key Family metrics for 2025 are set forth below. Total revenue for 2025 was $200.97 billion, an increase of 22% compared to 2024, due to an increase in advertising revenue. Ad impressions delivered across our Family of Apps in 2025 increased 12% year-over-year, and our average price per ad increased 9% year-over-year.

Income from operations for 2025 was $83.28 billion, an increase of $13.90 billion, or 20%, compared to 2024, driven by an increase in advertising revenue, partially offset by an increase in costs and expenses. The increase in costs and expenses was mainly due to increases in employee compensation and infrastructure costs.

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Consolidated and Segment Results

We report our financial results for our two reportable segments: Family of Apps (FoA) and Reality Labs (RL). FoA includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other services. RL includes our virtual and augmented reality related consumer hardware, software, and content.

Family of Apps Reality Labs Total
Year Ended
December 31, Year Ended
December 31, Year Ended
December 31,
2025 2024 % change 2025 2024 % change 2025 2024 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Revenue $ 198,759 $ 162,355 22% $ 2,207 $ 2,146 3% $ 200,966 $ 164,501 22%
Costs and expenses 96,290 75,246 28% 21,400 19,875 8% 117,690 95,121 24%
Income (loss) from operations $ 102,469 $ 87,109 18% $ (19,193) $ (17,729) (8)% $ 83,276 $ 69,380 20%
Operating margin 52  % 54  % (870) % (826) % 41  % 42  %

• Net income was $60.46 billion, with diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $23.49 for the year ended December 31, 2025.
• Capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, were $72.22 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025.
• Share repurchases of our Class A common stock were $26.26 billion and total dividend and dividend equivalent payments were $5.32 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025.
• Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $81.59 billion as of December 31, 2025.
• Long-term debt was $58.74 billion as of December 31, 2025.
• Effective tax rate was 30% for the year ended December 31, 2025. This includes the effects of the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act during the third quarter of 2025. Absent the valuation allowance charge as of the enactment date, our 2025 effective tax rate would have decreased by 17 percentage points to 13%.
• Headcount was 78,865 as of December 31, 2025, an increase of 6% year-over-year.

Family of Apps Metrics

• Family daily active people (DAP) was 3.58 billion on average for December 2025, an increase of 7% year-over-year.
• Ad impressions delivered across our Family of Apps increased by 12% year-over-year in 2025.
• Average price per ad increased by 9% year-over-year in 2025.

Developments in Advertising

Substantially all of our revenue is currently generated from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. We rely on targeting and measurement tools that incorporate data signals from user activity on websites and services that we do not control, as well as signals generated within our products, in order to deliver relevant and effective ads to our users. Our advertising revenue has been, and we expect will continue to be, adversely affected by reduced marketer spending as a result of limitations on our ad targeting and measurement tools arising from changes to the regulatory environment and third-party mobile operating systems and browsers.

In particular, legislative and regulatory developments such as the General Data Protection Regulation, including its evolving interpretation through decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, ePrivacy Directive, European Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, and U.S. state privacy laws have impacted our ability to use data signals in our ad products, and an increasing number of laws have been introduced limiting or prohibiting the provision of our services to younger users. We expect these and other developments will have further impact in the future. As a result, we have implemented, and we will continue to implement, whether voluntarily or otherwise, changes to our products and user data practices, which reduce our ability to effectively target and measure ads and may negatively impact our advertising revenue and user engagement. For example, in response to regulatory developments in Europe, we announced our plans to change the legal basis for behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the European Union, European Economic Area, and
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Switzerland from "legitimate interests" to "consent," and began offering users in the region a "subscription for no ads" alternative. We subsequently began offering users in the region who elect to continue using our services free-of-charge, supported by ads, an option to see less personalized ads, which are less relevant and effective than our premium ad offerings. We are engaging with regulators on our consent model. In addition, mobile operating system and browser providers, such as Apple and Google, have implemented product changes and/or announced plans to limit the ability of websites and application developers to collect and use these signals to target and measure advertising. For example, in 2021, Apple made certain changes to its products and data use policies in connection with changes to its iOS operating system that reduce our and other iOS developers' ability to target and measure advertising, which has negatively impacted, and we expect will continue to negatively impact, the size of the budgets marketers are willing to commit to us and other advertising platforms.

To mitigate these developments, we are continually working to evolve our advertising systems to improve the performance of our ad products. We are developing privacy enhancing technologies to deliver relevant ads and measurement capabilities while reducing the amount of personal information we process, including by relying more on anonymized or aggregated third-party data. In addition, we are developing tools that enable marketers to share their data into our systems, as well as ad products that generate more valuable signals within our apps. More broadly, we also continue to innovate our advertising tools to help marketers prepare campaigns and connect with consumers, including developing growing formats such as Reels ads and our business messaging ad products. Across all of these efforts, we are making significant investments in artificial intelligence (AI), including generative AI, to improve our delivery, targeting, and measurement capabilities. Further, we are focused on driving onsite conversions in our business messaging ad products by developing new features and scaling existing features.

We are also engaging with others across our industry to explore the possibility of new open standards for the private and secure processing of data for advertising purposes. We believe our ongoing improvements to ad targeting and measurement are continuing to drive improved results for advertisers. However, we expect that some of these efforts will be long-term initiatives, and that the legislative, regulatory and platform developments described above will continue to adversely impact our advertising revenue for the foreseeable future.

In addition, we maintain advertising policies to protect the security and integrity of our platform and comply with global content, security, and integrity obligations. Our ongoing efforts to enhance enforcement against ads and marketers which violate our advertising policies adversely affect our revenue, and we expect that the continued enhancement of such efforts will have an impact on our revenue in the future, which may be material.

Other Business and Macroeconomic Conditions

Other global and regional business, macroeconomic, and geopolitical conditions also have had, and we believe will continue to have, an impact on our user growth and engagement and advertising revenue. In particular, we believe advertising budgets have been pressured from time to time by factors such as inflation, economic policies and international trade, high interest rates, and related market uncertainty, which has led to reduced marketer spending. We are currently subject to increased business, macroeconomic, and geopolitical uncertainty, including as a result of volatility around international trade, which could impact our financial results in future periods.

In addition, competitive products and services have reduced some users' engagement with our products and services. We are investing in Reels and in AI initiatives across our products, including our AI-powered discovery engine to recommend relevant content, which we have already seen results in improved user engagement and monetization of our products. However, we continue to face competition from other products and services within certain demographics, in particular younger users. In addition, while Reels is growing in usage, it monetizes at a lower rate than our Feed and Stories products and we expect it will continue to monetize at a lower rate for the foreseeable future. We also have seen fluctuations and declines in the size of our active user base in one or more regions from time to time due to geopolitical conditions, which have adversely affected our user growth and engagement. These trends have adversely affected our advertising revenue and we expect will continue to adversely affect our advertising revenue in the foreseeable future.

Although we regularly evaluate a variety of sources to understand trends in our advertising revenue, we do not have perfect visibility into the factors driving advertiser spending decisions and our assessments involve complex judgments about what is driving advertising decisions across a large and diversified advertiser base across the globe. Trends impacting advertising spend are also dynamic and interrelated. As a result, it is difficult to identify with precision which advertiser spending decisions are attributable to which trends, and we are unable to quantify the exact impact that each trend had on our advertising revenue during the periods presented.
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Investment Philosophy

We remain focused on operating efficiently while investing in significant opportunities. In 2025, 82% of our total costs and expenses were recognized in FoA and 18% were recognized in RL. Our FoA investments include expenses relating to headcount, data centers, and technical infrastructure as part of our efforts to develop our apps and our advertising services. These efforts include significant investments in AI initiatives, including generative AI and superintelligence, to, among other things, recommend relevant content across our products, enhance our advertising tools, develop new products, and develop new features for existing products. In particular, we expect our AI initiatives will require significantly increased investment in infrastructure.

We are also making significant investments in our RL efforts, including developing virtual and augmented reality devices, software for social platforms, neural interfaces, and other foundational technologies. Our RL investments include expenses relating to technology development across these efforts. Many of our RL investments are directed toward long-term, cutting-edge research and development for products that may only be fully realized in the next decade. In 2025, our RL segment reduced our overall operating profit by approximately $19.19 billion, and we expect our 2026 RL operating losses to remain similar to 2025. We expect this will be a complex, evolving, and long-term initiative, and our ability to support our RL efforts is dependent on generating sufficient profits from other areas of our business. We are investing now because we believe this will become the next computing platform and will unlock monetization opportunities for businesses, developers, and creators, including around advertising, hardware, and digital goods.
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Trends in Our Revenue by User Geography

We calculate our revenue by user geography based on our estimate of the geography in which ad impressions are delivered, virtual and digital goods are purchased, or consumer hardware products are shipped. The geography of our users affects our revenue and financial results. Our revenue in regions such as United States & Canada and Europe is relatively higher primarily due to the size and maturity of those online and mobile advertising markets, and ad impression growth is primarily in geographies that monetize at lower rates, such as Asia-Pacific. In 2025, revenue increased by 21% in United States & Canada, 24% in Europe, 20% in Asia-Pacific, and 27% in Rest of World, in each case relative to 2024.

-

Ad Revenue

Non-Ad Revenue

Note: Non-advertising revenue includes RL revenue generated from the delivery of consumer hardware products and FoA Other revenue, which consists of revenue from paid messaging from WhatsApp, Meta Verified subscriptions, net fees we receive from developers using our Payments infrastructure, and revenue from various other sources.

Our revenue by user geography in the charts above is geographically apportioned based on our estimation of the geographic location of our users when they perform a revenue-generating activity. This allocation differs from our revenue disaggregated by geography disclosure in Note 2 — Revenue in our consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplemental Data" where revenue is geographically apportioned based on the addresses of our customers.
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Trends in Our Family Metrics

The numbers for our key Family metrics, our DAP and average revenue per person (ARPP), do not include users on our other products unless they would otherwise qualify as DAP based on their other activities on our Family products.

Trends in the number of people in our community affect our revenue and financial results by influencing the number of ads we are able to show, the value of our ads to marketers, as well as our expenses and capital expenditures. Substantially all of our daily active people (as defined below) access our Family products on mobile devices.

• Daily Active People (DAP). We define a daily active person as a registered and logged-in user of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp (collectively, our "Family" of products) who visited at least one of these Family products through a mobile device application or using a web or mobile browser on a given day. We do not require people to use a common identifier or link their accounts to use multiple products in our Family, and therefore must seek to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people. Our calculations of DAP rely upon complex techniques, algorithms, and machine learning models that seek to estimate the underlying number of unique people using one or more of these products, including by matching user accounts within an individual product and across multiple products when we believe they are attributable to a single person, and counting such group of accounts as one person. As these techniques and models require significant judgment, are developed based on internal reviews of limited samples of user accounts, and are calibrated against user survey data, there is necessarily some margin of error in our estimates. We view DAP as a measure of engagement across our products. For additional information, see the section entitled "Limitations of Key Metrics and Other Data" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

------
Note: We report the numbers of DAP as specific amounts, but these numbers are estimates of the numbers of unique people using our products and are subject to statistical variances and errors. While we expect the error margin for these estimates to vary from period to period, we estimate that such margin generally will be approximately 3% of our worldwide DAP. At our scale, it is very difficult to attribute multiple user accounts within and across products to individual people, and it is possible that the actual numbers of unique people using our products may vary significantly from our estimates, potentially beyond our estimated error margins. For additional information, see the section entitled "Limitations of Key Metrics and Other Data" in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Worldwide DAP increased 7% to 3.58 billion on average during December 2025 from 3.35 billion during December 2024.

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• Average Revenue Per Person (ARPP). Our Family of Apps (FoA) revenue represents the substantial majority of our total revenue. We define ARPP as our FoA revenue during a given quarter, divided by the average of the number of DAP at the beginning and end of the quarter.

ARPP: $12.33 $11.20 $11.89 $12.29 $14.25 $12.36 $13.65 $14.46 $16.56

Note: We updated our definition of ARPP beginning in the first quarter of 2024 and have recast ARPP in prior periods for comparative purposes.

Our annual worldwide ARPP in 2025, which represents the sum of quarterly ARPP during such period, was $57.03, an increase of 15% from 2024.

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Trends in Our Ad Impressions and Average Price Per Ad

• Ad Impressions. Our advertising revenue is generated by displaying ad products on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and third-party mobile applications. Impressions are considered delivered when an ad is displayed to a user.

Note: Our ad impressions growth by user geography in the charts above is geographically apportioned based on our estimation of the geographic location of our users when an ad impression is delivered.

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• Average Price Per Ad. We calculate average price per ad as total advertising revenue divided by the number of ads delivered.

Note: Our average price per ad growth by user geography in the charts above is geographically apportioned based on our estimation of the geographic location of our users when an ad impression is delivered.
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Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of these consolidated financial statements requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and related disclosures. On an ongoing basis, we evaluate our accounting estimates based on historical experience and on various other assumptions that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances. The actual impact on our financial performance could differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.

An accounting estimate is considered critical if both (i) the nature of the estimates or assumptions is material due to the levels of subjectivity and judgment involved, and (ii) the impact within a reasonable range of outcomes of the estimates and assumptions is material to our consolidated financial statements. We believe that the estimates and assumptions associated with loss contingencies, income taxes, and valuation of non-marketable equity investments, when applicable, have the greatest potential impact on our consolidated financial statements. Therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting estimates. For further information on all of our significant accounting policies, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Loss Contingencies

We are involved in legal proceedings, claims, and regulatory, tax or government inquiries and investigations that arise in the ordinary course of business. Certain of these matters include speculative claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts of damages. Additionally, we are required to comply with various legal and regulatory obligations around the world, and we regularly become subject to new laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate. The requirements for complying with these obligations may be uncertain and subject to interpretation and enforcement by regulatory and other authorities, and any failure or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could eventually lead to asserted legal or regulatory action. With respect to these matters, asserted and unasserted, we evaluate the associated developments on a regular basis and accrue a liability when we believe that it is both probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated.

We review the developments in our contingencies that could affect the amount of the estimated liability that has been previously recorded, and the matters and related reasonably possible losses disclosed. We make adjustments to our estimated liability and changes to our disclosures accordingly to reflect the merits of our defenses and the impact of negotiations, settlements, regulatory proceedings, rulings, advice of legal counsel, and updated information. Significant judgment is required to determine the likelihood of loss and the estimated amount of loss, including when and if the probability and estimate has changed for asserted and unasserted matters. Certain factors, in particular, have resulted in significant changes to these estimates and judgments in prior quarters based on updated information available. For example, in certain jurisdictions where we operate, fines and penalties may be the result of new laws and preliminary interpretations regarding the basis of assessing damages, which may make it difficult to estimate what such fines and penalties would amount to if successfully asserted against us. As a result of these and other factors, we reasonably expect that our estimates and judgments with respect to our contingencies may continue to be revised in the future.

The ultimate outcome of these matters, such as whether the likelihood of loss is remote, reasonably possible, or probable or if and when the possible range of loss is reasonably estimable, is inherently uncertain. Therefore, if one or more of these matters were resolved against us for amounts that materially differ from management's estimates of losses, it could have a favorable or unfavorable impact on our results of operations and financial condition. See Note 11 — Commitments and Contingencies and Note 14 — Income Taxes of the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" and Part I, Item 3, "Legal Proceedings" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding these contingencies.

Income Taxes

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes and income tax assets and liabilities, including evaluating uncertainties in the application of accounting principles and complex tax laws. Our actual and forecasted income (loss) before provision is subject to change due to economic, political and other conditions and significant judgment is required in determining our ability to recognize our net deferred tax assets.

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As a result of certain U.S. income tax provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted in July 2025, we expect to incur Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT) beginning in 2025. In assessing the realizability of our deferred tax assets and determining the need for a valuation allowance, our accounting policy incorporates the expected impact of future years' CAMT.

We recognize tax benefits from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. These uncertain tax positions include our estimates related to uncertainties with our research and development tax credits that are based on an assessment of whether our available documentation corroborating the nature of our activities supporting the tax credits will be sufficient. Similarly, our estimates for transfer pricing have been developed based upon analyses of appropriate arms-length prices. Although we believe that we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions (including net interest and penalties), we can provide no assurance that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be materially different, as significant judgment is required in evaluating and estimating our provision for income taxes. We make adjustments to these reserves in accordance with the income tax accounting guidance when facts and circumstances change, such as the closing of a tax audit or the refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different from the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made, and could have a material impact on our financial condition and operating results. For additional information, see Note 14 — Income Taxes of the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Valuation of Non-marketable Equity Investments

Impairment testing for non-marketable equity investments, including equity investments without readily determinable fair values accounted for using either the measurement alternative or the equity method, is performed at each reporting date to determine whether there are triggering events for impairment. Such qualitative assessment considers factors such as, but not limited to, the investee's financial condition and business outlook; industry and sector performance; regulatory, economic or technological environment; operational and financing cash flows; and other relevant events and factors affecting the investee. When indicators of impairment exist, we estimate the fair value of our non-marketable equity investments using the market approach and/or the income approach and recognize impairment loss in our consolidated statements of income if the estimated fair value is less than the carrying value. For equity method investments, an impairment loss is recognized when the impairment is considered other-than-temporary.

In addition, under the measurement alternative, determining whether another non-marketable equity investment of the same issuer is similar to the non-marketable equity investment we hold may require judgment in (a) assessment of differences in rights and obligations associated with the instruments such as voting rights, distribution rights and preferences, and conversion features, and (b) adjustments to the observable price for differences such as, but not limited to, rights and obligations, control premium, liquidity, or principal or most advantageous markets. The identification of observable transactions will depend on the timely reporting of these transactions from our investee companies, which may occur in a period subsequent to when the transactions take place. Therefore, our fair value adjustment for these observable transactions may occur in a period subsequent to when the transaction actually occurred. For additional information, see Note 5 — Non-Marketable Equity Investments of the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Change in Accounting Estimate

In January 2025, we completed an assessment of the useful lives of property and equipment, which resulted in an increase in the estimated useful lives of most servers and network assets to 5.5 years, effective January 1, 2025. For additional information regarding the change in useful lives of our servers and network assets, see Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Components of Results of Operations

Revenue

Family of Apps (FoA)

Advertising. We generate substantially all of our revenue from advertising. Our advertising revenue is generated by displaying ad products on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and third-party mobile applications. Marketers pay for ad products either directly or through their relationships with advertising agencies or resellers, based on the number of impressions delivered or the number of actions, such as clicks, taken by users.

We recognize revenue from the display of impression-based ads in the contracted period in which the impressions are delivered. Impressions are considered delivered when an ad is displayed to a user. We recognize revenue from the delivery of action-based ads in the period in which a user takes the action the marketer contracted for. The number of ads we show is subject to methodological changes as we continue to evolve our ads business and the structure of our ads products. In particular, the ads we show may vary by product (for example, our video and Reels products are not currently monetized at the same rate as our Feed or Stories products), and from time to time we increase or decrease the number or frequency of ads we show as part of our product and monetization strategies. We calculate average price per ad as total advertising revenue divided by the number of ads delivered, representing the average price paid per ad by a marketer regardless of their desired objective such as impression or action. For advertising revenue arrangements where we are not the principal, we recognize revenue on a net basis.

Other revenue. Other revenue consists of revenue from paid messaging from WhatsApp, Meta Verified subscriptions, net fees we receive from developers using our Payments infrastructure, and revenue from various other sources.

Reality Labs (RL)

RL revenue is generated from the delivery of consumer hardware products, such as Meta Quest and AI glasses, and related software and content.

Cost of Revenue and Operating Expenses

Cost of revenue. Our cost of revenue consists of expenses associated with the delivery and distribution of our products. These mainly include expenses related to the operation of our data centers and technical infrastructure, such as depreciation expense from servers, network infrastructure and buildings, employee compensation which includes payroll, share-based compensation and benefits for employees on our operations teams, and energy and bandwidth costs. Cost of revenue also consists of costs associated with partner arrangements, including traffic acquisition costs and credit card and other fees related to processing customer transactions; RL inventory costs, which consist of cost of products sold and estimated losses on non-cancelable contractual commitments; and content costs.

Research and development. Research and development expenses consist mostly of employee compensation which includes payroll, share-based compensation and benefits for our employees on our engineering and technical teams who are responsible for developing new technologies and products; infrastructure costs; RL technology development costs; and facilities-related costs.

Marketing and sales. Marketing and sales expenses consist mostly of employee compensation which includes payroll, share-based compensation and benefits for our employees engaged in sales, sales support, marketing, business development, and customer service functions; professional services to support our community and product operations; and marketing and promotional expenses.

General and administrative. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of employee compensation which includes payroll, share-based compensation and benefits for certain of our executives as well as our legal, finance, human resources, corporate communications and policy, and other administrative employees; legal-related costs, which include estimated fines, settlements, or other losses in connection with legal and related matters, as well as other legal fees; other taxes, such as digital services taxes and other non-income-based tax levies; and professional services.

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Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2025 compared to the year ended December 31, 2024. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of income data (in millions):

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023
Revenue $ 200,966  $ 164,501  $ 134,902 
Costs and expenses:  
Cost of revenue 36,175  30,161  25,959 
Research and development 57,372  43,873  38,483 
Marketing and sales 11,991  11,347  12,301 
General and administrative 12,152  9,740  11,408 
Total costs and expenses 117,690  95,121  88,151 
Income from operations 83,276  69,380  46,751 
Interest and other income, net 2,656  1,283  677 
Income before provision for income taxes 85,932  70,663  47,428 
Provision for income taxes 25,474  8,303  8,330 
Net income $ 60,458  $ 62,360  $ 39,098 

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of income data (as a percentage of revenue) (1) :

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023
Revenue 100  % 100  % 100  %
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue 18  18  19 
Research and development 29  27  29 
Marketing and sales 6  7  9 
General and administrative 6  6  8 
Total costs and expenses 59  58  65 
Income from operations 41  42  35 
Interest and other income, net 1  1  1 
Income before provision for income taxes 43  43  35 
Provision for income taxes 13  5  6 
Net income 30  % 38  % 29  %

_________________________
(1) Percentages have been rounded for presentation purposes and may differ from unrounded results.

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Revenue

The following table sets forth our revenue by source and by segment:

  Year Ended December 31,
  2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Advertising $ 196,175  $ 160,633  $ 131,948  22  % 22  %
Other revenue 2,584  1,722  1,058  50  % 63  %
Family of Apps 198,759  162,355  133,006  22  % 22  %
Reality Labs 2,207  2,146  1,896  3  % 13  %
Total revenue $ 200,966  $ 164,501  $ 134,902  22  % 22  %

Family of Apps

FoA revenue in 2025 increased $36.40 billion, or 22%, compared to 2024. The increase was almost entirely driven by advertising revenue.

Advertising

Advertising revenue in 2025 increased $35.54 billion, or 22%, compared to 2024 due to increases in ad impressions delivered and average price per ad. In 2025, ad impressions delivered increased by 12%, as compared with an increase of 11% in 2024, year-over-year. Ad impressions delivered during 2025 grew in all regions, especially in Asia-Pacific, which was driven by increases in users and their engagement on our products. In 2025, the average price per ad increased by 9%, as compared with an increase of 10% in 2024, year-over-year. The increase in average price per ad in 2025 was driven by an increase in advertising demand, which we believe is mostly due to ongoing improvements to our ad performance from our ad targeting and measurement tools. This increase was partially offset by a higher number of ad impressions delivered, especially in geographies and in products, such as Reels, that monetize at lower rates. Other factors are discussed in the section entitled "—Executive Overview of Full Year 2025 Results." In addition, the online commerce vertical was the largest contributor to the increase in advertising revenue in 2025 compared to 2024. We anticipate that future advertising revenue will be driven by a combination of price and ad impressions delivered.

Other revenue

FoA other revenue in 2025 increased $862 million, or 50%, compared to 2024. The increase was mostly driven by paid messaging from WhatsApp and Meta Verified subscriptions.

Reality Labs

RL revenue in 2025 increased $61 million, or 3%, compared to 2024. The increase was driven by an increase in sales of AI glasses, partially offset by a decrease in Meta Quest sales.

Revenue Seasonality

Revenue is traditionally seasonally strong in the fourth quarter of each year due in part to seasonal holiday demand. We believe that this seasonality in both advertising revenue and RL consumer hardware sales affects our quarterly results, which generally reflect significant growth in revenue between the third and fourth quarters and a decline between the fourth and subsequent first quarters. For instance, our total revenue increased 17%, 19%, and 17% between the third and fourth quarters of 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively, while total revenue for the first quarters of 2025, 2024, and 2023 declined 13%, 9%, and 11% compared to the fourth quarters of 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively.

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Foreign Exchange Impact on Revenue

Changes in foreign exchange rates had an unfavorable impact on our revenue in the full year 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. To calculate revenue on a constant currency basis, we translated revenue using the prior year's monthly exchange rates for our settlement or billing currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Using these constant rates for full year 2025, our total revenue and advertising revenue would have been $201.38 billion and $196.60 billion, which were $418 million and $420 million higher than actual total revenue and advertising revenue, respectively.

Cost of revenue

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Cost of revenue $ 36,175  $ 30,161  $ 25,959  20  % 16  %
Percentage of revenue 18  % 18  % 19  %

Cost of revenue in 2025 increased $6.01 billion, or 20%, compared to 2024. The increase was mainly due to higher operational expenses related to our data centers and technical infrastructure, which included decreases in the depreciation growth rate due to an extension in the useful lives of servers and network assets, effective January 1, 2025. To a lesser extent, higher costs associated with partner arrangements also contributed to the increase.

See Note 1 — Summary of Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding changes in the estimated useful life of our servers and network assets.

Research and development

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Research and development $ 57,372  $ 43,873  $ 38,483  31  % 14  %
Percentage of revenue 29  % 27  % 29  %

Research and development expenses in 2025 increased $13.50 billion, or 31%, compared to 2024. The increase was mostly due to higher employee compensation and infrastructure costs related to research and development, including our AI initiatives.

The higher employee compensation was primarily from an 8% growth in employee headcount from 2024 to 2025 in engineering and other technical functions and an increase in share-based compensation expense.

Marketing and sales

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Marketing and sales $ 11,991  $ 11,347  $ 12,301  6  % (8) %
Percentage of revenue 6  % 7  % 9  %

Marketing and sales expenses in 2025 increased $644 million, or 6%, compared to 2024. The increase was mainly due to higher professional services related to our ongoing platform integrity efforts.

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General and administrative

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
General and administrative $ 12,152  $ 9,740  $ 11,408  25  % (15) %
Percentage of revenue 6  % 6  % 8  %
 

General and administrative expenses in 2025 increased $2.41 billion, or 25%, compared to 2024. The increase was mainly due to higher legal-related costs, which included lapping of a $1.55 billion decrease in accrued losses for certain legal proceedings that benefited the prior year.

See Note 11 — Commitments and Contingencies in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding legal-related costs.

Segment profitability

The following table sets forth income (loss) from operations by segment:

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Family of Apps $ 102,469  $ 87,109  $ 62,871  18  % 39  %
Reality Labs (19,193) (17,729) (16,120) (8) % (10) %
Total income from operations $ 83,276  $ 69,380  $ 46,751  20  % 48  %

Family of Apps

FoA income from operations in 2025 increased $15.36 billion, or 18%, compared to 2024. The increase in FoA income from operations was driven by higher advertising revenue which was partially offset by an increase in costs and expenses. The increase in costs and expenses was primarily due to increases in employee compensation, infrastructure costs, costs associated with partner arrangements, and legal-related costs.

Reality Labs

RL loss from operations in 2025 increased $1.46 billion, or 8%, compared to 2024, driven by higher RL costs and expenses. RL costs and expenses increased primarily due to increases in employee compensation and other personnel related expenses, estimated losses on non-cancelable purchase commitments for RL inventory, and technology development costs.

See Note 15 — Segment and Geographical Information in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

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Interest and other income, net

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Interest income $ 2,123  $ 2,517  $ 1,639  (16) % 54  %
Interest expense (1,165) (715) (446) (63) % (60) %
Foreign currency exchange gains (losses), net 352  (690) (366) 151  % (89) %
Other income (expense), net 1,346  171  (150) NM 214  %
Total interest and other income, net $ 2,656  $ 1,283  $ 677  107  % 90  %

____________________________________
NM    - not meaningful
 
Interest and other income, net in 2025 increased $1.37 billion, or 107% compared to 2024, due to an increase in other income (expense), net, related to the unrealized gains on our marketable and non-marketable equity investments. Foreign currency exchange gains, net from foreign currency transactions and remeasurement also contributed to the increase.

Provision for income taxes

Year Ended December 31,
2025 2024 2023 2025 vs 2024 % change 2024 vs 2023 % change

(in millions, except percentages)
Provision for income taxes $ 25,474  $ 8,303  $ 8,330  207  % —  %
Effective tax rate 30  % 12  % 18  %

On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was enacted, introducing several significant U.S. income tax provisions that reduced our U.S. federal cash tax payments for the remainder of 2025 and future years. The provisions include the immediate expensing of domestic research and development costs and certain capital expenditures beginning in 2025, as well as an enhanced deduction for foreign-derived intangible income effective in 2026. The benefits from these provisions are limited by the 15% Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (CAMT). As a result, we recorded a $15.93 billion charge in the third quarter of 2025, of which $14.03 billion was a valuation allowance against our U.S. federal deferred tax assets as of the enactment date of OBBBA, and the remaining was mostly related to the reduction of the benefit of the foreign-derived intangible income deduction. In determining the valuation allowance, our accounting policy incorporates the expected impact of future years’ CAMT in assessing the realizability of our deferred tax assets .

Our provision for income taxes in 2025 increased $17.17 billion or 207% compared to 2024, primarily due to an increase in the effective tax rate. Our effective tax rate in 2025 increased compared to 2024, mostly due to the effects of OBBBA.

Effective Tax Rate Items. Our effective tax rate in the future will depend upon the proportion between the following items and income before provision for income taxes: the effects of changes in tax law, changes in valuation allowance due to the effects of CAMT, U.S. tax benefits from foreign-derived intangible income, tax effects from share-based compensation, research tax credit, tax effects from capital losses not expected to be utilized, settlement of tax contingency items, and tax effects of changes in our business.

A number of countries have enacted legislation to implement the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 15% global minimum tax regime. These changes did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements for 2025. We continue to evaluate the impacts of proposed and enacted legislation with respect to the global minimum tax regime in the jurisdictions in which we operate. As additional jurisdictions enact legislation, transitional relief expires, and other provisions of the global minimum tax legislation become effective, our effective tax rate and cash tax payments could increase in future years.

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Absent any changes to our tax landscape, we expect our effective tax rate for the full year 2026 to be in the range of 13-16%.

Unrecognized Tax Benefits. As of December 31, 2025, we had net uncertain tax positions of $11.23 billion which was included in long-term income taxes on our consolidated balance sheets. These unrecognized tax benefits were predominantly accrued for uncertainties with our research tax credits and transfer pricing with our foreign subsidiaries, which include licensing of intellectual property, providing services and other transactions. The ultimate settlement of the liabilities will depend upon resolution of tax audits, litigation, or events that would otherwise change the assessment of such items.

See Note 14 — Income Taxes in the notes to the consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding income tax contingencies.

Liquidity and Capital Resources