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, parent of Facebook and Instagra, stock surged after the social-media company blew out second-quarter earnings expectations.

And both Meta and Microsoft were already on track to spend more than 30% of this year’s revenue on capital expenditures, compared with about 15% to 20% historically. Those outlays were already beginning to look like mere table stakes after Google parent Alphabet used its report last week to bump up its own capex spending plans for this year to $85 billion.

Meta is shifting how it plans to ensure widespread access to superintelligence, a suggestion that the company’s most advanced AI may remain closed so that Meta can stay in the driver’s seat.

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg published a memo outlining his vision to build AI "superintelligence." Citing "safety concerns," he wrote that Meta would need to be "rigorous" about what it open sources and what it doesn't.