Investors still trust Google more than Meta when it comes to spending their money on AI

Meta and Alphabet both beat expectations in their earnings reports on Wednesday, each recording their fastest growth in years. They also lifted their guidance for capital expenditures for the year, telling investors that they’re going to keep pouring money into artificial intelligence infrastructure.

But despite their similarly upbeat results, Wall Street had very different reactions. Alphabet shares popped 7% in extended trading, while Meta’s stock fell 7%.

It’s the continuation of a theme that’s hampered Meta throughout much of the generative AI boom. While Alphabet and fellow hyperscalers Microsoft and Amazon all have massive cloud infrastructure businesses, allowing them to turn their AI investments into revenue, Meta has no such offering.

That makes AI spending a harder sell for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, because the return on investment has to show up elsewhere, and that mostly means increased ad revenue and profitability.

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