Mark Zuckerberg Is Unwinding in Capri Days After Meta Agreed to an $18 Billion Settlement
· Thought Catalog
Updated 8 minutes ago, August 31, 2026
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were spotted relaxing on holiday in Capri, Italy, before heading to a local restaurant for dinner.
Italian reports also placed the couple aboard the superyacht Deep Blue off Sardinia, after a tender ride from the Topaz. Zuckerberg reportedly flew in by helicopter from Salerno. Italy is familiar holiday territory for the couple, who honeymooned there in 2012.
The break comes days after Meta reached a sweeping settlement with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general. The core deal covers 47 states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories. Texas struck a separate agreement worth roughly $1 billion; Florida stayed out.
The package calls for up to roughly $18 billion in payments over 10 years, alongside changes to Facebook and Instagram. Those include default two-hour daily limits for teens, overnight lockouts, muted notifications during school hours and stronger age checks. Meta has called on TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safeguards.
It is one of several expensive changes underway at the company. Meta cut about 8,000 jobs in May, roughly 10% of its workforce, amid reports of a more aggressive shift toward AI-first operations. Internal discussions about even deeper reductions to create smaller, “AI-native” teams were later scaled back.
Investors are also worried about the pressure that $130 billion to $145 billion in planned capital spending this year will put on free cash flow. Second-quarter margins narrowed as legal charges, severance and infrastructure costs drove up expenses.
Yet the business funding all of this is still growing fast.
Second-quarter revenue reached $60.8 billion, up 28% from a year earlier. Advertising accounted for $59.4 billion, a 27% increase. Ad impressions rose 14%, while the average price per ad climbed 12%.
Meta says AI is already improving clicks and conversions on Facebook, and more than 9 million small businesses use at least one of its generative AI tools to create ads. Bernstein has suggested Meta could overtake Google in total advertising revenue before the end of 2026 if it keeps capturing the same share of new digital ad spending.
Its audience is growing, too. An average of 3.6 billion people used Meta’s apps daily in June. Instagram crossed 2 billion daily users, Threads passed 500 million monthly users, and WhatsApp set a messaging record during the World Cup final. That gives Meta a vast existing audience for its AI products.
Revenue beyond advertising remains much smaller, but it is picking up. The Family of Apps “other” category, which includes WhatsApp paid messaging and subscriptions, jumped 73% to $1.01 billion in the quarter, clearing $1 billion for the first time. Reality Labs revenue grew 16.5% on demand for AI glasses, even as Quest lagged.
Even the settlement brought some relief. Shares rose on the news as investors welcomed the resolution of a major legal uncertainty, despite the price.
Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating and $810 price target, pointing to reports that a consumer AI agent could arrive inside Instagram and WhatsApp as early as the first week of September. Internally called “Hatch,” it would reportedly book restaurants, shop, handle email and operate in its own virtual environment. A possible premium tier could cost as much as $200 a month.
Meta’s next foundation model, internally called “Watermelon,” is targeted for October.
None of this erases the cost of the AI build-out or the upheaval of the layoffs. But Meta’s main business has not stalled. Advertising is accelerating, its apps keep adding users, and its next consumer AI products could soon face their first public test.
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