Meta faces AI skepticism ahead of earnings report as $145B spending plan rattles investors

Meta Platforms is about to walk into its Q2 2026 earnings call on July 29 carrying a question that no amount of impressive ad revenue can fully answer: is spending up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure actually worth it? The stock has slipped roughly 10% year-to-date, and investors have seen the revenue numbers. What they haven’t seen is a clear, near-term payoff from a capex budget that has essentially doubled in a single year. The numbers look great, so why the anxiety? Meta’s top line is humming. The company posted approximately 33% year-on-year revenue growth in Q1 2026, comfortably beating analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings per share. But after that Q1 earnings call on April 29, shares dropped about 10%. Not because the results were bad, but because Meta simultaneously revealed that its capital expenditure plans were climbing due to rising component costs. For Q2, consensus estimates peg revenue at around $60.23 billion, with earnings per share projected at $7.19. The average operating margin is expected to land near 40%. The disconnect is the capex guidance. Meta has told the market to expect between $125 billion and $145 billion in capital expenditures for 2...