Meta at $602.90 Sparks Investor Debate Versus Alphabet Capex Rival

On May 19, 2026, Motley Fool compared Meta and Alphabet as top 2026 capex spenders, asking whether investors should favor Meta stock at the $602.90 level over Alphabet. The debate follows a sharp one-month performance split in which Meta fell 11% after lifting its 2026 capex guidance to $125–$145 billion, while Alphabet rose 16% on Google Cloud revenue surging 63% to $20.03 billion and a $460 billion backlog. The article notes Alphabet’s absence from Stock Advisor’s latest top-10 picks and cites the service’s 998% average return versus the S&P 500’s 207%, framing the choice around visible AI monetization versus heavy investment without near-term ROI attribution.