Meta Is Catching Google in Ads. Which Stock Does Wall Street Favor?

Meta is closing on Google in advertising. But Wall Street is still backing Alphabet stock.

In Q2, Meta made $59.36 billion from ads, up 27%, its filing shows. Alphabet made $63.27 billion from “Google Search & other,” up 17%. The gap is $3.9 billion. It was almost double last year.

“Meta arguably has seen the largest impact from AI on ad growth and is on track to surpass Google Search this year,” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote.

His firm says Meta took nearly half of every new digital ad dollar in the quarter. AI is sharpening recommendations and targeting: Meta served 14% more ads and charged 12% more for each. Google and Amazon are benefiting too.

Note: Meta is competing on the Google Search and Other segment. Total Google advertising revenue was $81.63 billion.

Meta shares have fallen over the past year, while Alphabet climbed.

Why Wall Street Still Doubts the Stock

The easy answer is AI spending.  Alphabet’s spending feeds Google Cloud, which generated $24.8 billion, up 82%. 

Meta has no cloud segment to show investors; its infrastructure returns mostly surface through ads. Investors have been rotating toward Alphabet despite a cash-flow squeeze across Big Tech.

TipRanks shows 38 buys and no sells, with an average target of $752.61.

Meta’s next test is Business Agent. More than one million businesses use it on WhatsApp and Messenger, with Instagram expansion underway. 

Paid plans are coming. Meta has the faster ad engine. Alphabet has more visible ways to turn AI into cash.