Meta Platforms shares jump as artificial intelligence fuels advertising sales, outweighing big capital costs

META PLATFORMS forecast third-quarter revenue well above analysts’ estimates on Wednesday, as artificial intelligence (AI) once more powered its core advertising business, sending its shares soaring 11% in extended trading.

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The bumper results could ease investor worries about the social media giant’s frenzied pace of spending, at least for now, as it seeks to change Wall Street’s impression that it lags rivals including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google in the AI race.

Meta raised the bottom end of its annual capital expenditures forecast by $2 billion, to a range of between $66 billion and $72 billion, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg told analysts on a call that AI was making big leaps possible in its business that makes money by selling ads on Facebook and Instagram.

Rising costs to build out data center infrastructure and employee compensation costs — Meta has been poaching researchers with mega salaries — would push the 2026 expense growth rate above the pace in 2025, Meta said. The company is planning higher capital expenses next year as well.

Investors have largely backed Zuckerberg’s pursuit of superintelligence — a hypothetical concept where AI surpasses human intelligence in every possible way — pushing the company’s stock up nearly a fifth so far this year.

‘Meta’s post-market stock gains on Wednesday, along with those of Microsoft’s, added a combined half a trillion dollars in stock market value.