META: Meta Stock Surges 12% on Earnings Beat. Here Comes Record $2 Trillion Market Cap

Meta is writing its comeback story with flair. The metaverse might’ve flopped — but the new superintelligence narrative is pulling in billions and looking to change the game as we know it.

📈 Results Crush Wall Street Expectations

• Meta Platforms META lit up after-hours trading Wednesday with a whopping 12% surge. The pop follows blowout second-quarter earnings and a confident AI-fueled outlook that could soon push the stock past a $2 trillion valuation — a level the social media giant has never touched before.
• Second-quarter earnings per share came in at $7.14, smashing the Street’s estimate of $5.88 and rising sharply from $5.16 last year — a 38% jump. Revenue surged to $47.5 billion, beating forecasts of $44.8 billion and notching 22% year-over-year growth.
• Core metrics — including daily active users, ad impressions, and price-per-ad — all topped consensus, showing that Meta’s machine is humming across the board.

🤖 Superintelligence Is the New Metaverse

• Meta credited AI advancements across its ad systems for the quarter’s standout performance. “AI is unlocking gains across our ad platform,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• The company spent $17 billion this quarter alone on data centers and infrastructure to chase its next big bet: superintelligence, or AGI — AI that can outperform humans at just about any intellectual task.
• In total, Meta has poured $31 billion into capex so far this year, aiming for $66–$72 billion in 2025 — and says 2026 spending will ramp even more.

🧠 Talent Wars & Massive Cash Flows

• Meta is poaching top AI minds from Apple AAPL, Alphabet GOOGL, OpenAI, and Anthropic, assembling a specialized superintelligence team to lead the next phase of the arms race.
• CFO Susan Li confirmed the company is not slowing down: expect more hiring, more spending, and more AI moonshots in the quarters ahead.
• Despite the spending spree, Meta generated a whopping $26 billion in operating cash flow this quarter — more than enough to fund its AI ambitions while keeping investors happy.