Meta Ad Revenue Rises 27% As Quarterly Capex Hits $30.116 Billion
Q2 shows AI ranking lifting ads while one quarter of infrastructure spend absorbs nearly all operating cash flow.
Meta reported Q2 2026 revenue of $60.801B, up 28% year over year, for the quarter ended June 30 reported July 29 2026. Family of Apps ad revenue was $59.363B, up 27% year over year, with ad impressions up 14% and average price per ad up 12%. Q2 purchases of property and equipment were $30.116B plus $962M finance leases equals $31.078B reported as $31.08B including leases, against operating cash flow of $31.862B and free cash flow of $784M. The quarter also scaled the Muse Spark family, launched April 8 with version 1.1 on July 9 and version 1.3 on September 2.
For holders, the print frames leverage before diversification. Meta cited LLM retrieval in ranking, plus 1% app event conversions on Instagram pilots and plus 8.3% ad clicks with plus 15.7% conversions on Facebook from sequence learning, as of the July 29 2026 call. Advantage+ carries an annual run rate above $75B with more than 9M businesses using generative creative tools, as of the same call. Early diversification is measured, with Family of Apps other revenue at $1.007B, up 73% year over year on WhatsApp paid messaging, more than 1M weekly Business Agent users and a 60% rise in Meta AI interactions, for the quarter ended June 30 reported July 29 2026.
Risk sits in cost and cash conversion. Q2 costs and expenses were $42.026B, up 55% year over year, with operating margin at 31% versus 43% a year earlier and net income of $15.848B down 14%, for the quarter ended June 30 reported July 29 2026. Fiscal 2026 guidance as of July 29 calls for capital expenditure including leases of $130B to $145B and total expenses of $165B to $169B, with Q3 revenue of $61B to $64B. Watch Connect on September 23 for glasses, MTIA progress from March 11 2026 and the late October Q3 print, with Conversions API and compute capacity as the independence hedge.