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(Bloomberg) -- Meta Platforms Inc. posted first-quarter sales that beat Wall Street estimates, a sign that the company’s advertising business is so far weathering the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war. Sales were $42.
3 billion in the first quarter, the maker of Facebook and Instagram said Wednesday. That beat analysts’ estimates for $41.4 billion for the quarter ended March 31.
The company also said current-quarter revenue will be in line with analysts’ expectations, and that it will boost spending as it continues to invest in artificial intelligence. “We’re well positioned to navigate the macroeconomic uncertainty,” Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told investors on the company’s earnings call. Meta needs its advertising business, which makes up 98% of the company’s revenue, to continue growing in order to fund an expensive expansion in artificial intelligence.
So far, AI is helping improve ad targeting and personalization of the content people see on social networks. Meta is also investing heavily to keep pace with rivals like OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in developing large language models and chatbots.
Meta now expects to spend $64 billion to $72 billion, up from its prior outlook of $60 billion to $65 billion. The company said the updated forecast reflects “additional data center investments to support our artificial intelligence efforts as well as an increase in the expected cost of infrastructure hardware.” Meta shares rose more than 6% in after-hours trading, after closing at $549.
Shares of companies that make gear used in AI computing, including Nvidia Corp., also rallied after markets closed in New York. Meta stock was down more than 6% year-to-date before the company reported earnings, but has still performed better than most of America’s biggest technology companies amid a market selloff spurred by the Trump administration’s trade war and increased tariffs.
“While many companies have not been providing forward guidance amid tariff concerns and an uncertain macro environment, Meta did — a bullish sign,” said Andrew Rocco, a stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research. Rocco pointed not just to the company’s second-quarter forecast, but also to the increase in the company’s expected capital expenditures, which he said was a positive look for the broader AI sector. Meta reported first-quarter earnings per share of $6.
43, up 37% from a year prior and surpassing the average analyst estimate of $5.25. In January, Zuckerberg signaled heavy AI investment ahead, saying the company would ultimately spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the technology.
Those plans appear to be on track despite global economic turmoil, and even as Chinese AI companies figure out how to do more with less. Earlier this year, a Chinese company called DeepSeek released a competitive model that it said used cheaper and less powerful chips. Meta’s quarterly results come a day after the company hosted its inaugural LlamaCon conference, which was focused on its AI development efforts.
The company unveiled a new standalone AI app, called Meta AI, which it hopes will compete with rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and give users an easier way to access the product without turning to Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said that the company’s Llama models have been downloaded about 1.2 billion times.
(Updates with CEO quote in the third paragraph.) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2025 Bloomberg L.
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