Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the office of U.S. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) after a meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2026.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
meta is scheduled to announce its second-quarter financial results after the close of regular trading on Wednesday.
Here’s what Wall Street expects, according to estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Earnings per share: Adjusted $7.22 Revenue: $60.17 billion
Meta said its core advertising business continues to benefit from advances in artificial intelligence, with revenue expected to increase 26% from $47.52 billion in the year-ago period.
While Meta’s digital advertising business remains healthy, the company is trying to show it can directly compete in the OpenAI, Anthropic, and AI models and services markets. google has a big lead.
Investors will listen closely to what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will say during the earnings call about Meta’s efforts to more directly monetize its various AI-related efforts. Earlier this month, Meta debuted the Muse Spark 1.1 model. Head of AI Alexandr Wang says it’s the “most powerful model for agent and coding work yet” and is cheaper than products from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Meta also released Muse Image, which includes certain features that power users and creators can access by signing up for one of the company’s new monthly subscription plans announced in May.
The company has been actively investing in new AI strategies since hiring Wang in June 2025 in a deal that involved a $14.3 billion investment in his startup, Scale AI. Meanwhile, Meta is pouring money into AI infrastructure in an effort to keep pace with Alphabet. Amazon and microsoft When it comes to building data centers and securing the AI chips and systems needed to run models and workloads.
On Tuesday, Meta announced his next venture. black rock Just weeks after announcing Hyperion’s massive data center project in rural Louisiana would cost more than $50 billion, it has launched a $14 billion data center project in El Paso, Texas. In early July, Meta announced plans to build a $9 billion data center in Alberta, Canada.
Meta shares have fallen 10% this year, lagging far behind the Nasdaq, as Wall Street questions whether the company’s big investments will pay off.
“The gap between capital investment intensity and monetization diversification remains the central argument for stocks,” Wedbush analysts said in a note last week. Both companies have what amounts to a hold rating on the stock, and that uncertainty is “why we remain on the sidelines, even though Meta’s valuation is at a discount relative to its peers.”
In its last earnings report in April, Meta raised its capital spending forecast for this year to a high of $145 billion from $135 billion. Analysts expect Meta to book $33.9 billion in capital expenditures in the second quarter, and $136.7 billion for the year.
Alphabet shares fell last week after the company raised its 2026 capital spending outlook to as much as $205 billion, up from a previous forecast of up to $190 billion.
Of the four major hyperscalers, Meta is the only one without a cloud infrastructure business. But Zuckerberg recently suggested the company is considering selling some of its AI capabilities to third parties. Anthropic is currently in preliminary negotiations to lease AI-related computing power from Meta, CNBC confirmed earlier this month.
According to StreetAccount, Meta is expected to report 3.61 billion daily active users (DAPs) in the second quarter, which refers to usage of the company’s family of apps. Analysts expect average sales per person in the second quarter to be $16.65.
Meta’s Reality Labs division, which develops virtual reality, augmented reality and AI-powered wearable devices such as the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, is expected to post a loss of $5.07 billion on revenue of $423.4 million for the quarter, according to Street accounts.
WATCH: This week’s meta focuses on AI and capex: Here’s what you can expect.
