Meta Platforms Inc.

Nvidia, the major U.S. AI chip maker, announced its latest quarterly results (May-July 2026) with revenue reaching $96.2 billion, up 106% year-over-year and above analyst expectations of about $92 billion. Net income surged to $59.7 billion, or $2.46 per share, up 126% from the same period last year. The data center business, a key revenue driver, brought in $89 billion, more than doubling. Meanwhile, the edge computing business generated $7.2 billion, up 27%. Nvidia forecasts current-quarter revenue (August-October 2026) of $108 billion, above market expectations, and expects next fiscal year's revenue to grow another 70%, citing supply chain constraints as a limiting factor on sales, not weakening demand. Major customers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta are expected to invest nearly $800 billion this year to develop data centers and AI infrastructure.

All three major U.S. stock indices closed lower, with the Dow falling 113.52 points, or 0.21%, to 53,463.88, after the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index came in higher than expected. Investors held back trading ahead of Nvidia's earnings, the AI industry leader, due after the close. The S&P 500 closed at 7,675.70, down 0.02%, and the Nasdaq closed at 26,130.20, down 0.08%. The Commerce Department reported that the overall PCE index rose 3.7% year-over-year in July, above the 3.6% analysts had forecast, while the core PCE index rose 3.3%, in line with expectations. The data increased market expectations that the Fed may raise interest rates at its September meeting, with CME FedWatch indicating a 38.1% probability. Nvidia shares fell 1.6% ahead of its earnings release, while Meta rose 1% after reaching a settlement of up to $18 billion in a lawsuit over harm to young users. CrowdStrike gained 2% ahead of its second-quarter results. Healthcare stocks fell the most, down 1%, with Moderna down 5.8% and Intuit down 3.2% after issuing weaker revenue guidance. J.M. Smucker rose 4.3% after forecasting a smaller-than-expected sales decline. On other economic data, durable goods orders rose 1.1% in July, above expectations, and second-quarter GDP grew 1.5%, unchanged from the initial estimate. European stocks were flat, with the STOXX 600 closing at 656.41, down 0.01%, while the FTSE 100 fell 0.07%, but the CAC-40 rose 0.27% and the DAX rose 0.08%. Investors are watching talks between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, a route for up to a fifth of the world's oil and gas. European bank stocks led gains, up 1%, with Deutsche Bank surging 4.3% to its highest level since 2011, and Commerzbank up 2.8% after reports that Germany's finance minister plans to discuss a potential acquisition of Commerzbank with UniCredit's CEO. Sources said the ECB is ready to raise interest rates in September to counter the impact of the war in Iran. WTI crude oil fell 0.16% to close at $82.23 per barrel, and Brent fell 0.84% to close at $87.84 per barrel.

Wall Street held steady on Wednesday as investors awaited Nvidia's Q2 2027 earnings report after the closing bell, with the S&P 500 up 0.02%, the Nasdaq Composite down 0.12%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipping 0.21%. The morning's inflation data, which came in slightly above expectations, was largely shrugged off, with the PCE price index rising 0.2% in July and 3.7% year over year, while core inflation held at 3.3%. Meta Platforms rose about 1% after settling a social media addiction case for $16.7 billion, and Goldman Sachs was the heaviest drag on the Dow, down about 1%. Oil slipped as Iran and Oman reportedly moved toward a deal over the Strait of Hormuz, and the iShares Bitcoin Trust fell 1.2% while the SPDR Gold Trust dropped 1.6%. Nvidia's revenue is expected to rise roughly 97% year over year to $91.9 billion, with earnings doubling to $2.08 per share, but investors are watching gross margins for signs of competitive pressure.

Meta Platforms Inc. was reportedly close to a far more extensive AI-driven restructuring than previously known, with internal proposals under a project named Organization Transformation considering cuts of up to 60% in some teams. The goal was to make the company more AI-native, with software handling more routine work and fewer workers overseeing automated processes. However, Meta did not go that far, cutting about 10% of its workforce in May and abandoning plans for a second round of cuts slated for November. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to halt the deeper cuts suggests the company is taking AI seriously as a productivity tool, which could impact margins by reducing internal costs while revenue grows.

Abercrombie & Fitch soared 37% after trouncing fiscal second-quarter estimates and raising its full-year outlook, with adjusted earnings of $2.42 per share and revenue up 5% to $1.27 billion, helped by tariff refunds and stronger growth at its Abercrombie unit. Intuit fell 4% after offering disappointing fiscal year 2027 guidance of $23.3 billion to $23.5 billion in revenue, below the $23.7 billion analyst estimate, though its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat expectations. Meta Platforms jumped 3% after reaching a settlement with state attorneys general in a case alleging it made its apps addictive to teenagers. Zoom Communications dropped 7% after its third-quarter forecast of $1.46 to $1.48 earnings per share missed the $1.50 estimate. Kohl's rose 2% after raising its full-year outlook, partly due to $150 million in tariff refunds, and announced share buybacks of up to $100 million in 2026. J.M. Smucker climbed 3% on fiscal first-quarter revenue of $2.22 billion, topping the $2.13 billion consensus. SolarEdge Technologies jumped nearly 8% after a UBS upgrade to buy, citing an FCC policy expected to boost market share and pricing power. Semtech rose over 8% on second-quarter earnings beat, with adjusted EPS of 71 cents versus 61 cents expected. Boston Scientific fell 5% after reporting a cybersecurity incident causing product disruptions. SAP declined 3% after a UBS downgrade to neutral, citing slow delivery of agentic AI.

Meta Platforms agreed to a proposed multistate teen-safety settlement worth up to $17 billion, ending a federal trial that began days ago in Oakland, and its stock rose 1% to $575.60 at midday Wednesday. The settlement resolves allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed to encourage compulsive use among children and teens, with payments running in annual installments over 10 years and California potentially receiving $1.5 billion to $2.1 billion. Participating states receive 70% of the allocated payment, while the remaining 30%, or $5.3 billion, is released only if YouTube and TikTok implement the same age assurance measures and match that amount. The $17 billion deal is a fraction of the $1.4 trillion in damages Meta said four states could seek, and Meta had booked a $2.4 billion charge related to legal proceedings in Q2 2026. Meanwhile, Snap stock fell 9% to $5.42 after Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday sued Snapchat over compulsive-use design and risks to minors, and Reddit slid 3% to $156.78 in sympathy, while the Global X Social Media ETF declined 0.7% to $45.28.

Shares of Reddit jumped 4.9% in afternoon trading after The Information reported that Meta Platforms is preparing to launch a consumer AI agent named Hatch that can access and browse Reddit. Hatch will also let users order from DoorDash, shop on Etsy, check Yelp, and manage Microsoft Outlook inside Meta's ecosystem. Meta plans to launch the tool in the coming weeks and has weighed tiered pricing that could include a premium subscription of up to $199.99 per month. The inclusion of Reddit alongside core utility apps highlights the platform's unique position in the broader AI landscape. Reddit's shares are extremely volatile and have had 54 moves greater than 5% over the last year.

Nebius Group stock jumped 4% to $218.47 Tuesday midday, snapping a six-session slide after the company closed a $5.75 billion convertible note offering that exceeded its initial $4.5 billion target. The private offering to qualified institutional buyers consisted of 0.50% notes due 2030 with $3.45 billion in principal and 4.50% notes due 2034 with $2.3 billion in principal, with initial purchasers exercising options for an additional $450 million and $300 million respectively. Nebius also entered exchange agreements swapping $400 million of its 2.00% notes due 2029 and $400 million of its 3.00% notes due 2031 for approximately 15.8 million Class A ordinary shares. Proceeds will fund data-center construction, AI cloud investment, GPU procurement, and general corporate purposes, supporting a $37.5 billion backlog of remaining performance obligations that includes a five-year, $12 billion deal with Meta Platforms. Peer IREN Limited reports fiscal fourth quarter results after the close on Thursday, August 27, providing the next demand checkpoint for the neocloud group.

Growing political and community pushback is creating new headwinds for data center stocks, with concerns ranging from rising electricity demand to water consumption. Pennsylvania, Texas and Michigan have all moved toward tighter oversight or restrictions on new projects, and generous tax incentives once used to attract data center investments are increasingly facing political scrutiny. Jim Cramer of CNBC sees the political backlash as a major advantage for hyperscalers such as Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta, whose financial strength could allow them to continue developing data centers even as smaller, speculative developers face greater hurdles. Investors seeking concentrated hyperscaler exposure can consider the Defiance AI Hyperscale Leaders ETF, the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF, and the Corgi Mag 7 ETF.

Meta Platforms is moving ahead with Hyperion, a planned $50 billion data center project in the United States, as part of its long-term AI buildout. The Hyperion facility is intended to be one of the largest data centers in the country, focused on supporting Meta's AI workloads and operational flexibility. Meta has also recruited AI researcher Luke Metz to its Superintelligence Labs unit, adding senior talent to its advanced AI research efforts. The project highlights the risk that capital expenditure and operating costs could run ahead of revenue, while building 5 gigawatts of capacity and in-house chips fits with the idea of Meta eventually selling access to its models and surplus compute as additional revenue streams on top of advertising.

Oklo's artificial intelligence narrative is being tested as the nuclear startup's stock has fallen 44% in 2026. The company holds an 18 gigawatt order book, including a non-binding agreement with Switch for up to 12 GW and a landmark deal with Meta Platforms for a 1.2 GW nuclear campus in Ohio, but it has yet to generate reactor revenue. Oklo's market cap stands at $8 billion against trailing twelve-month revenue of just $1.2 million, and analysts expect only about $55 million in annual revenue two fiscal years from now. The company lost $48.5 million in the second quarter, up from $33 million in the first, and faces a critical bottleneck in securing high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, with only one U.S. facility licensed to produce it.

Dick's Sporting Goods shares fell 18.23% in premarket trading Tuesday after the retailer missed quarterly estimates and issued a cautious full-year outlook amid a promotional sporting goods backdrop. Comparable sales rose 4.9%, helped by broad-based category growth including strong results from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, while Foot Locker's pro forma comparable sales fell 3.6%. Meta Platforms gained 0.66% premarket on a report that it plans to launch a consumer-facing AI agent in the coming weeks and a new AI model in October. Johnson & Johnson rose 0.49% after the FDA approved a label expansion for its myasthenia gravis therapy Imaavy as a treatment for warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia, potentially making it the first U.S.-approved therapy for wAIHA. Hims & Hers Health edged up 0.26% premarket after tumbling over 8% Monday on reports that Visa will impose nearly $75,000 in penalties in September after thousands of credit card dispute complaints tied to weight-loss subscriptions triggered its inclusion in Visa's Acquirer Monitoring Program.

Qualcomm expects non-handset revenue growth to accelerate from 24% in fiscal 2026 to more than 60% in fiscal 2027, driven by AI chip demand. The company recently agreed to a long-term deal with Meta Platforms for data center CPUs, which could validate its new technology and boost demand. Non-handset revenue made up 40% of Qualcomm's fiscal 2026 third-quarter revenue, and the company projects non-handset revenue will reach $40 billion by fiscal 2029. Qualcomm's contract with Apple ends in March 2027, making the AI pivot timely as handset sales decline. Qualcomm trades at a P/E ratio of 18, down about 7.1% year to date, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF has surged more than 68%.

Jim Cramer said Monday that growing political opposition to data center construction is shifting the advantage toward the largest technology companies at the expense of smaller, speculative developers. The "Mad Money" host said the data center thesis, perhaps the greatest investment theme in a generation, is now under attack and may never be the same, citing Pennsylvania and Texas as illustrations where governors once advocates for data center growth have lately demanded more stringent conditions on new projects. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are best positioned to navigate the new landscape, Cramer argued, because the scale of their balance sheets lets them clear regulatory and community hurdles that would be prohibitive for smaller operators. He added that if speculative developers exit the market, hyperscalers could face less pressure on land, power, and workforce availability, which might translate into lower construction costs as they press ahead with AI infrastructure. Cramer cautioned that with the buildout trajectory in question, the market may no longer justify elevated multiples for suppliers like GE Vernova, which makes gas turbines, or memory-chip companies including Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate, regardless of how robust end demand proves to be. Despite his more cautious outlook for parts of the data center trade, Cramer stopped short of calling the broader theme finished, saying rules can be crafted and communities can be appeased, but the unbridled buildout is most likely over.

Meta is testing third-party agentic AI in WhatsApp and developing an internal project codenamed Hatch that would let users deploy autonomous agents across services like DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp, and Microsoft Outlook. The project, reported by The Information, may include a premium subscription tier priced as high as $199.99 per month, far above existing Meta One Plus and Premium tiers tested in Singapore and Guatemala. Hatch is reportedly inspired by OpenClaw, an open-source agentic tool by Peter Steinberger, which Meta banned internally in February 2026 over security concerns. Meta Superintelligence Labs, led by Alexandr Wang since a $14.3 billion acquihire in June 2025, is also targeting an October 2026 release for its Watermelon model, which internal claims say reaches GPT-5.5 parity using about 10 times the compute of Muse Spark. On the July 29 Q2 2026 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg defended a $125 billion to $145 billion 2026 capex plan and outlined a three-bucket strategy including consumer agents for Meta's 3.5 billion users, while the WhatsApp Business Agent began charging $2.00 per million tokens on August 1, 2026.

Data centers are driving the largest capital investment in US history, with the five biggest hyperscalers—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle—set to spend more than $750 billion on capital expenditures this year, up 67% from last year and roughly 75% earmarked for AI infrastructure. The buildout is straining the electric grid, with utilities now forecasting a sixfold jump in 2030 peak demand growth from predictions just three years ago, and data center electricity use is forecast to rise from 4.4% of US consumption in 2023 to almost 12% by 2030. Politically, more than 70% of Americans oppose a data center in their area, and at least 75 projects totaling roughly $130 billion in potential investment were delayed in Q1 2026, with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro imposing new requirements, Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers backing a one-year moratorium, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott freezing new data centers. Meta is committing more than $50 billion to build Hyperion, a 5-gigawatt data center in Louisiana powered by 10 new natural gas plants, while Nvidia announced over $100 billion in guarantees for an 8-gigawatt project in Ohio to power OpenAI.

Meta Platforms reported second-quarter 2026 advertising revenue of $59.4 billion, up 27% year over year, driven by AI-powered ad tools and strong user engagement across its family of apps. Ad impressions rose 14% and average price per ad increased 12%, while daily active users reached 3.6 billion. The company's Advantage+ AI advertising solutions surpassed a $75 billion annual revenue run rate, and more than 9 million small businesses now use at least one of Meta's AI-powered ad creative tools. Meta expects third-quarter 2026 revenue between $61 billion and $64 billion. Competitors Reddit and Snap also reported ad revenue growth in the same quarter, with Reddit up 64% to $762 million and Snap up 9% to $1.28 billion.

Meta Platforms has quietly become one of Microsoft's largest AI customers, reportedly spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually through Azure. According to Bloomberg, Meta consumes trillions of AI tokens each week through Microsoft's Foundry platform, using outside models for tasks including software development and evaluating the output of its own AI systems. Microsoft Foundry gives customers access to models from multiple providers rather than locking them into one AI developer, and the platform had about 100,000 customers as of July. Meta's spending is significant because it comes despite the company building one of the world's largest internal AI infrastructures, and it is already showing up in Meta's financials, with $31.08 billion of capital expenditures in the second quarter and a raised 2026 capex outlook of $130 billion to $145 billion. For Microsoft, Meta adds another large customer to an Azure business already growing rapidly, with Azure and other cloud-services revenue up 43% year over year and Microsoft Cloud revenue reaching $59.3 billion in the latest quarter.