Meta shares are flying high as Zuckerberg sells his AI vision

Technology giants that want to spend big on artificial intelligence and stay in the good graces of investors should take a page out of Meta Platforms' playbook.

The Mark Zuckerberg-run company has seen its shares gain 13% this month, far outperforming Big Tech peers despite reporting another jump in capital expenditures and pledging to spend even more going forward. The stock settled on Wed less than 1% short of its record closing price from last month.

The difference for Meta is that Zuckerberg did a better job of convincing investors that AI is helping to improve results in its core business - digital advertising. The AI boost for others like Amazon.com, Microsoft and Alphabet hasn't been as well articulated.

"It was his best earnings call as a public CEO," said Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management. "He explained the near-term benefits of AI, the long-term benefits and the timing of how all this is going to play out. And he did it in a compelling way."

As a result, earnings per share and revenue in the second quarter easily exceeded analyst estimates, prompting JPMorgan's Doug Anmuth to declare that Meta "continues to earn the right to spend big on GenAI."