The Information nightly briefing newsletter

Oct 18, 2026 The Briefing By Martin Peers Supported by Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here. Greetings! Tech earnings season is back (yes, I know it feels like it never ends). This time, we’ve got a slight twist: Meta Platforms has broken with the pack and is reporting its September-quarter earnings on Wednesday, a week ahead of its big tech counterparts, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. (Apple is even later, on Nov. 2.) By reporting earlier than the others, Meta ensures it will grab more of the spotlight, for better or worse. Until last week’s market sell-off, Meta had been riding a wave of enthusiasm on Wall Street, thanks to chatter about its Muse personal agent and recently released Muse Wonder AI models. Things changed last week, particularly on Friday, as renewed jitters about the AI expansion tanked most tech stocks. Given Meta’s gargantuan spending on AI development, this week’s update will provide a new test of investor sentiment toward Meta shares. Meta’s digital ad business is on fire. In the first half of this year, its ad revenues expanded 30%, double the rate of growth Google reported—astonishing for a company of Meta’s size (second-quarter ad revenues were $59 billion). There seems to be no doubt its ad business is benefiting from AI refinements to targeting and creative tools. On the second-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 9 million small businesses were using at least one of Meta’s AI creative tools to make ads. The company projected a slight slowdown in overall growth for the third quarter, putting the high end of its growth range at 25%, compared with second-quarter growth of 28%. But most investors probably aren’t worrying too much about the top-line growth rate. They’re likely more focused on what Meta says about its spending. Analysts are projecting the company will report capital expenditures of $40.5 billion in the quarter—double the year-earlier number, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. They estimate that will translate to negative free cash flow of $10.3 billion. By comparison, Meta reported free cash flow of $10.6 billion in last year’s third quarter. Analysts are projecting this will be the first of several quarters of negative free cash flow. Meta had $90 billion in cash and securities at June 30—thanks in part to recent bond offerings—so it has the runway to cover the cash burn for a good while. But it will likely have to raise more money eventually, either through another debt offering or by selling equity. If Meta can stay on investors’ good sides, an equity offering seems in the cards. Then There’s Tesla… Also reporting on Wednesday is Tesla, Elon Musk’s second most important public company (it’s worth only $1.4 trillion, roughly $600 billion less than SpaceX). And this promises to be a downbeat quarter, at least compared to the second one, when Tesla reported 26% growth in revenue. Tesla’s problem this time is that the quarter will compare unfavorably with the same period last year, when the expiration of the federal government’s electric vehicle tax credit gave Tesla a short-term boost to sales, interrupting an otherwise weak series of quarters. Tesla has already reported that deliveries in the third quarter fell 2% from the same period in 2025, which analysts expect to translate to a 0.6% lift in revenue for the quarter. Not many investors care too much about Tesla’s sales right now. Musk’s pitch to his very loyal fan base is that Tesla is becoming a company that primarily makes humanoid robots and robotaxis, although Thursday’s reveal of its upcoming Roadster is giving longtime car customers something to look forward to. They do have to look forward, though—the Roadster won’t go into production until 2028. The biggest factor weighing on Tesla shares, though, is the likelihood of a Tesla-SpaceX merger. Musk has dropped several h