NEW YORK, June 2, 2026, 05:03 (EDT)
- Meta ended Monday at $600.47, off $32.04, or 5.1%, ahead of Tuesday’s regular Nasdaq open.
- Alphabet’s $80 billion plan to fund AI has drawn new market attention to Big Tech spending. The pressure is back on.
- Savita Subramanian at Bank of America told clients to stick with AI “capex takers” and steer clear of crowded AI spenders. Business Insider
Meta Platforms stock faces pre-market losses on Tuesday, after investors raised fresh questions over the Facebook and Instagram owner’s AI spending. Wall Street is again looking at how much Meta will spend to compete in artificial intelligence.
Shares finished Monday at $600.47, dropping 5.1%. The low during the session was $599.53. The regular Nasdaq open in New York hadn’t started yet—pre-market is from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern.
Wall Street isn’t just rewarding companies for AI plans now—it’s looking at the price tag. Capital expenditure, or capex, is what gets spent on big-ticket items like data centers and servers. Meta said in its latest quarterly filing that its estimated 2026 capex is around $125 billion to $145 billion “to support” AI as well as its main business. SEC
Meta wasn’t the only factor. Alphabet said Monday it will raise $80 billion through equity offerings, with $10 billion coming from Berkshire Hathaway, to pay for AI infrastructure. Google is in a fight with Meta for digital ad dollars, so Alphabet’s plan has made the same question louder for both: at what point does AI spending show up in results?
Bank of America analysts, with chief U.S. stock strategist Savita Subramanian, say tech could hit an “air pocket” if expectations remain high as AI costs keep rising. They told investors to “own capex takers like Semis, Hardware” instead of going for “crowded AI spenders.” Meta lands in the hyperscaler group they say is getting more scrutiny now. Business Insider
Meta is holding a strong financial position. First-quarter revenue jumped 33% year over year to $56.31 billion as advertising picked up. The company delivered 19% more ad impressions across its apps and the average price per ad climbed 12%. Core ad business is still driving growth.
Meta’s family of apps is still massive. The company reported 3.56 billion family daily active people in March, up 4% from last year. But the filing also showed those numbers slipped a bit from the previous quarter, as internet outages in Iran and WhatsApp limits in Russia weighed.
That’s what’s behind the stock’s choppy action. Investors haven’t lost faith in Meta’s ability to grow. Their question is whether ad sales and new AI ad products can keep up with a capex plan that’s starting to look more like something from a utility than from a lean internet company.
Analysts pointed to that worry after Meta’s April earnings. D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria called the results “met expectations, but failed to impress investors,” saying Meta came up short especially compared to Google’s stronger numbers. Reuters
The big risks are legal and operational. If AI demand drops off, if data-center bills jump more than expected, or if youth-safety lawsuits and rules hit product design, Meta might not get the returns it wants from these investments. Meta has reported youth lawsuits in various places and warned that losing them could bring big fines, damages or force changes to how it does business.
Meta faces a straightforward test Tuesday. The company needs investors to see AI as driving up ad prices, automation, and engagement enough to cover costs. If it falls short, shares could end up tracking Wall Street’s willingness to tolerate Meta’s $145 billion spending cap, instead of results from Facebook and Instagram.
