Meta shares outpourings nearly 10 percent as a rosy revenue forecast showed that artificial intelligence was helping the social media giant boost engagement and ad sales even in an uncertain economy.

The Facebook owner was set to add over $70 billion to its market value, based on premarket movements, after strong second-quarter earnings encouraged 16 analysts to lift their target price on a stock that has already more than doubled this year.

Meta (is) in a class-of-their-own in digital ads, monster guidance blew the doors off with an expected growth rate of +15-24 percent- numbers investors were hoping to maybe see as early as Q4.

While Meta's 12 percent rise in second-quarter ad revenue surpassed the three percent growth at Alphabet's Google, earnings reports from both the digital ad behemoths reinforced a recovery in the sector.

Meta and Google are on track to add more than $170 billion to their combined market capitalization - a figure that is more than the individual market values of about 90 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 index.

Smaller rival Snap, however, disappointed on ad sales as advertisers stick to tried and true platforms.

Meta's results were also supported by improving monetization of Reels, a short-form video format that is the company's answer to TikTok. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Reels now has an annual revenue run rate exceeding $10 billion, up from $3 billion last fall.

“Advertisers are gaining confidence in Meta's enhanced and AI-powered campaign planning and measurement capabilities, and spending more. Unsurprisingly, Reels monetization keeps improving,” says Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi.