Meta's Q2 2026 earnings call (July 29) gave the clearest read yet on where Zuckerberg's AI billions are going — and why he isn't backing off despite free cash flow cratering 91% year-over-year.

The numbers: Revenue hit $60.8B, up 28% YoY. Ad prices rose 12%. Instagram and Facebook both saw double-digit growth in time spent. Daily interactions with Meta AI jumped 60% after the Muse Spark model rollout. Capex guidance stays pinned at $130B–$145B for the year.

Zuckerberg's core argument: AI isn't a side bet anymore — it's already inside the machine that makes Meta money. He pointed to LLMs improving ad ranking and relevance as the clearest proof point, and said Meta's ad business is now growing faster year-over-year than any other company's reported ad business.

He's also opening a second revenue front: renting out excess compute to other businesses at "a meaningful premium" over what Meta paid — a hedge in case the industry did over-build.

The bet, in his own words: infrastructure spend now, in exchange for capability and monetization later. CFO Susan Li backed this up, noting the industry has historically under-built for AI demand, which makes Meta's existing capacity "extremely valuable."

Bottom line: Wall Street is still nervous about the cash burn, but Zuckerberg is betting that being early on compute — not clever on marketing — is what wins the AI decade.