Meta stock price climbs as Louisiana data-center probe and Wikipedia AI deal sharpen cost focus

16 January 2026

New York, Jan 16, 2026, 09:52 (EST) — Regular session

Meta Platforms shares climbed roughly 0.7% to $625.36 in early Friday trading, following a stronger tech sector. Investors digested new developments on the company’s AI expansion and the related expenses.

The company announced it will release its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results after markets close on Jan. 28, marking the next key date for the stock. Investors are focused on any shifts in Meta’s planned spending on data centers and infrastructure backing its AI services.

Spending on Meta’s $27 billion data center in Richland Parish is already under the microscope. Earthjustice, an environmental law group, has called on the Louisiana Public Service Commission to look into the project’s financing. They warn that if Meta pulls out early, local utility customers could be stuck covering costs for gas plants and transmission. “If Meta ends the lease after four years almost none of the costs … will have been paid up,” Earthjustice attorney Susan Stevens Miller told Reuters. Reuters

Separately, the Wikimedia Foundation announced content-training deals with Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon. The move aims to secure compensation for the extensive use of Wikipedia articles in training generative AI systems—tools that create text and images from prompts. Lane Becker, president of Wikimedia Enterprise, called Wikipedia “a critical component” for tech firms and said partners “see the need” to back it financially. Reuters

Meta is scaling back its virtual-reality projects. According to The Verge, the company plans to shut down Horizon Workrooms as a separate app on Feb. 16 and will halt sales of certain enterprise-targeted Quest hardware and services starting Feb. 20. This move is part of a larger shift in how Meta is approaching its “metaverse” goals. The Verge

Meta Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan disclosed a sale of 517 shares on Jan. 12, priced at $653 each. The transaction was made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, allowing insiders to execute trades on a pre-set timetable without reacting to daily market moves.

The wider market nudged higher. The Invesco QQQ Trust, tracking the Nasdaq 100, climbed around 0.5%. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust gained about 0.3%.

That said, the buzz around Meta’s infrastructure buildout isn’t without risks: stricter regulatory hurdles on power and permits, rising costs for long-term content access, or delays in seeing returns from the investment spree. Any of these factors could squeeze margins, even if ad demand remains steady.

On Jan. 28, Meta will release its earnings and face scrutiny over its spending, particularly whether the expenses for running and supporting its AI infrastructure are climbing quicker than investors had anticipated.

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Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and technology to emerging industries and developments across global markets. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and worked in market research before becoming a financial journalist. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

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