Meta Platforms and Microsoft are both showing that obscene spending on new businesses can work—as long as the older ones are humming. That was hardly a given heading into their latest quarterly reports on Wednesday.

Meta is up 199% over the last 5 years. Across the same period, the S&P 500 is up 95%. Will Meta be a market-beater over the next 5 years? If so, will there be a significant gap or do you expect it to be close?

Meta's strong earnings report sent its stock soaring after hours. The company also made it clear that the AI talent wars come with a hefty price tag.

In the midst of an artificial intelligence spending spree, Meta posted stronger-than-expected results for the second quarter, buoyed by growing ad revenue even as its expenses increased

Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) surged over 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday following stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings and optimistic guidance, fueled by its expanding artificial

Meta posted a second-quarter profit that beat expectations by a wide margin, and revenue that topped forecasts for a 12th-straight quarter, as active users, ad impressions and ad prices all rose. The company also provided a revenue outlook for the current quarter that was better than forecast.

Meta Platforms shares surged after the social-media company blew out second-quarter earnings expectations Wednesday afternoon.Along with Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings report last week, Meta’s release reveals a lot of strength in digital advertising,

The company reported earnings before certain costs such as stock compensation of $7.14 per share, while revenue for the period rose 22%, to $47.52 billion. Those numbers shattered expectations, with Wall Street looking for a mere $5.