On Meta’s recent earnings call, the absence of the word “metaverse” was striking—Mark Zuckerberg didn’t utter it once, a stark contrast to three years ago when he used the term eight times. Instead, the conversation pivoted sharply toward AI, infrastructure, and capital spending, with “compute” emerging as the dominant theme. Zuckerberg used the word 14 times, while CFO Susan Li said it eight times. Other key terms like “infrastructure” and “capacity” each appeared 12 times, underscoring the company’s deep focus on expanding its AI hardware and data center capabilities. Meta’s leadership emphasized a significant increase in capital expenditures, raising its 2025 capex guidance and signaling even higher spending in 2026. This reflects the company’s aggressive push to build the computing power needed to train next-generation AI models. Zuckerberg repeatedly referenced “novel” work, using the word seven times to describe Meta’s ambitions in developing original AI models and products. “We expect to build novel models and novel products, and I'm excited to share more when we have it,” he said, hinting at future announcements. Despite the metaverse’s reduced presence on the call, Meta is not abandoning the vision. In a recent internal memo, CTO Andrew Bosworth reaffirmed that the metaverse remains a companywide priority, calling this year the “most critical” in determining whether the project is a visionary leap or a costly misstep. However, the focus in the earnings discussion was clearly on AI, with Horizon, Meta’s virtual reality platform, going unmentioned. Hardware also took center stage. The word “Quest” was used nine times, and “glasses” six times, highlighting the company’s continued investment in AR/VR devices. Facebook was the most frequently mentioned product, cited 13 times, followed by Instagram (11) and Threads (10). WhatsApp was referenced just six times. The call largely avoided political topics. Although Meta reported a $15.9 billion tax charge tied to the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—linked to former President Donald Trump’s tax policy—neither Zuckerberg nor Li used the words “president” or “Trump.” The company also did not reference macroeconomic challenges, a topic that had appeared in past calls. Notably, no direct mention was made of Meta’s key AI competitors. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or xAI were not named by executives. One analyst did bring up OpenAI’s Sora video model, but the company’s leadership did not respond with a competitive comparison. The shift in language and focus has not reassured investors. Meta’s shares dropped sharply—by double digits—on Thursday, reflecting growing skepticism about the return on its massive AI investments. As Meta restructures its superintelligence lab and bets big on compute, the market is watching closely to see if the company’s novel ambitions translate into tangible results.