Meta reported record second-quarter revenue of $60.8 billion on July 29, 2026, up 28% year-over-year and comfortably ahead of Wall Street’s $59.5 billion estimate. The stock fell more than 4% in after-hours trading anyway, because free cash flow collapsed to just $784 million, down from $8.5 billion a year earlier — the clearest evidence yet of how heavily Meta’s AI infrastructure spending is now weighing on its finances.
Meta generated $31.86 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, then spent $31.1 billion on data centers, chips, and AI infrastructure — leaving barely anything behind. Net income fell 14% year-over-year to $15.8 billion, and diluted earnings per share of $6.18 missed the $7.13 consensus by a wide margin, weighed down by $2.4 billion in legal charges and $1.18 billion in severance costs tied to May layoffs, according to a detailed earnings breakdown.
The capex commitment keeps climbing
Meta narrowed its full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $130–145 billion, raising the low end from a prior $125–145 billion range — a signal of increased confidence in the spending commitment rather than any pullback. To help fund it, Meta issued approximately $25 billion in new long-term debt during the quarter alone. The company paid $1.35 billion in dividends during the same period — more than its entire free cash flow — with the gap covered by that new debt issuance.
The unanswered question hanging over the stock
Unlike Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, Meta has no established cloud business generating outside revenue from its infrastructure buildout — 98% of its revenue still comes from advertising. CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed Meta is exploring selling excess compute capacity at a premium, but acknowledged that business remains nascent. That leaves investors with a genuine open question: whether AI capex at this scale can be justified by advertising performance alone, or whether Meta needs a second major revenue engine before the market stops treating the spending as a drag on cash rather than a return-generating investment.
Reality Labs is still bleeding, just less than expected
Meta’s Reality Labs division posted a $4.6 billion operating loss on just $431 million in revenue for the quarter — smaller than Wall Street’s expected $5.07 billion loss, but still part of a unit that has never posted a profitable quarter since Meta’s 2021 pivot toward the metaverse, with cumulative losses now exceeding $60 billion. The AI buildout is now drawing more capital than that earlier bet ever did, with no comparable quarterly profit target yet attached to it.
The earnings landed the same night as Microsoft’s own results, which sent MSFT shares up roughly 7% after hours — a stark contrast that sharpened the market’s read on Meta specifically. Where Microsoft and Alphabet can point to fast-growing cloud businesses translating AI capex directly into contracted revenue, Meta’s advertising engine, however strong on its own terms, doesn’t offer investors the same direct line from infrastructure spending to external revenue growth.
What to watch next
- Whether Meta’s Q3 guidance of $61–64 billion in revenue holds up against the rising cost base.
- Whether Meta’s exploration of selling excess AI compute capacity becomes a genuine second revenue line or remains a minor experiment.
- Whether free cash flow recovers later in 2026 or continues compressing as the $130–145 billion capex guidance plays out.
Sources
- Meta Q2 Beats Revenue While Legal Charges and AI Spending Destroy Free Cash Flow — Tech Times
- Meta’s Stock Plunges on Light Revenue Guidance, Dwindling Free Cash Flow — CNBC
- Meta Q2 Earnings: $784M Free Cash Flow as AI Capex Soars — Eastern Herald
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