Quick overview

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Meta experienced a more than 10% increase in value following the release of its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, which surpassed revenue expectations. Here’s a comparison of the company’s performance against the predictions made by analysts surveyed by LSEG:

 

Meta’s second-quarter sales rose by 22% year over year, maintaining the same growth rate as the previous year. The company’s advertising revenue for the second quarter was $46.56 billion, exceeding Wall Street’s forecast of $43.97 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated during a call with analysts that Meta’s artificial intelligence technology drove “greater efficiency and gains across our ad system.”

Meta projected that its third-quarter sales will range between $47.5 billion and $50.5 billion, contrasting with Wall Street’s expectation of $46.14 billion. The company also raised the lower end of its previous estimate for capital expenditures, stating they will be between $66 billion and $72 billion, up from an earlier range of $64 billion to $72 billion. Meta indicated that hiring-related expenses will be “the second-largest” cost.

Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality and augmented reality division, reported an operating loss of $4.53 billion on sales of $370 million for the second quarter. Although the loss was smaller than Wall Street anticipated, it was still below expected sales figures. Daily active users of Meta’s family of apps grew to 3.48 billion in the second quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 3.45 billion.

Meta’s total costs and expenses amounted to $27.08 billion in Q2, reflecting a 12% year-over-year increase. The company initiated an AI hiring spree in June, investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, which resulted in the appointment of Scale AI’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, as chief AI officer. Zuckerberg is pursuing an AI strategy overhaul to help Meta regain momentum following a tepid response from developers to its Llama 4 AI model.

Meta finance chief Susan Li said the company’s investments in Scale AI and related AI expenditures, stating that “we also made $15.1 billion in non-marketable equity investments in the second quarter, including our minority investment in Scale AI, along with other investment activities.