Meta Platforms Inc.Meta's massive AI capex ($31.08B in Q2, 51.1% of revenue) and falling free cash flow highlight the costly AI race, with the stock up 1.5% and trading below GF Value.

Meta Platforms rejected calls for a coordinated slowdown in advanced AI development, Reuters reported Wednesday, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg arguing that competitive pressure and legal liability already push individual AI laboratories to take safety seriously. Zuckerberg pointed to Meta's decision to delay Muse for further security work and said independent model evaluations should become a normal part of the industry, adding that most of Meta's computing power remains focused on existing products rather than systems designed to improve themselves. The distinction matters because Meta is spending at extraordinary scale: the company invested $31.08 billion in second-quarter capital expenditures, equal to roughly 51.1% of revenue, while free cash flow fell to just $784 million. Meta shares gained approximately 1.5% to $680.41, keeping the stock firmly in positive territory even as investors weighed the increasingly difficult trade-off between AI speed and AI safety. The stock trades about 20.27% below a GF Value of $853.42, leaving investors to balance a sizeable valuation discount against the execution risk of pouring tens of billions of dollars into an AI race where one major safety failure could damage both user trust and the returns expected from that infrastructure.
Meta Platforms Inc.Meta's massive AI capex ($31.08B in Q2, 51.1% of revenue) and falling free cash flow highlight the costly AI race, with the stock up 1.5% and trading below GF Value.