Meta increases AI investment target to $72 billion
[caption id="attachment_4216336" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the 2025 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on April 5, 2025 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo: Craig T Fruchtman/Getty Images)[/caption]
If Mark Zuckerberg has a limit to how much he’s willing to spend on infrastructure to win the AI race, the CEO of Meta is doing a great job of hiding it.
On Wednesday, the social networking company boosted its capital expenditure plans by billions of dollars for at least the third consecutive quarter, even as rival Microsoft has eased up slightly on data center plans amid economic uncertainty and concerns that the industry’s feverish spending could result in overcapacity.
Meta said Wednesday that it now expects its 2025 capital expenditure to range between $64 billion and $72 billion, a sharp step up from the $60 billion to $65 billion range it forecast just three months ago, and an astounding sum compared to the $28 billion in annual capex that Meta spent just two years ago in 2023.
"The pace of progress across the industry and the opportunities ahead for us are staggering," Zuckerberg said on the company's earnings call Wednesday, as he stressed Meta's goal of developing an even more capable level of AI he called "full general intelligence."
Meta’s stock jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, as the social networking giant announced quarterly earnings results that topped Wall Street expectations and a strong revenue forecast for the current quarter.
Meta said it expects Q2 revenue to range between $42.5 billion and $45.5 billion, which would represent year-on-year growth of between 9% and 16%. The average analyst expectation called for Q2 revenue of $43.81 billion. —Alexei Oreskovic
Microsoft tops earnings expectations, offers sunny outlook
Microsoft stock rose more than 7.7% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company posted strong third-quarter results.
Quarterly revenue was up more than 13% year-over-year to $70.1 billion and net income reached $25.8 billion, up 18%. Profit increased 17.76% from $21.93 billion to $25.82 billion year-over-year.
Microsoft’s cloud computing business, which includes Azure, reported a 21% increase in sales from a year ago to $26.8 billion, more than its forecasted sales of $25.9 billion to $26.2 billion.
On a call with investors, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood emphasized that it was Azure’s non-AI business that outperformed expectations.
Microsoft’s outlook also improved. The company forecast cloud computing Q4 revenue growth of 34% to 35%, well above Wall Street estimates of about 32%. The range for its forecast for its intelligent cloud segment, $28.75 billion to $29.05 billion, fully clears analyst estimates of $28.5 billion.
On the call, CEO Satya Nadella addressed the company’s success amid continued economic uncertainty from the White House-led trade war.
There’s an argument that “software is the most malleable resource we have to fight any type of inflationary pressure or any type of growth pressure where you need to do more with less,” Nadella said, adding that Microsoft’s focus is: “How do we make sure we are helping our customers?” —Stuart Dyos
Apple forced to halt non-App Store sales commissions
A U.S. judge said Wednesday that Apple violated a court order requiring it to open its App Store to outside payment options by charging commissions on purchases made outside its marketplace.
Fortnite maker Epic Games complained that Apple had failed to comply with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ 2021 order after she ruled that Apple had engaged in illegal anticompetitive conduct.
On Wednesday, the judge found that Apple did indeed violate her order—“willfully”—and referred the iPhone maker to prosecutors to a possible criminal investigation.
Apple “did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive,” the judge wrote.
The judge also said Apple’s VP of finance, Alex Roman, lied on the witness stand.
In 2021, the judge said Apple’s App Store policies didn’t violate federal antitrust law, but still required the company to allow developers to avoid its in-app payment tool and its up-to-30% commission.
Apple allowed developers to send users to the web to complete transactions for in-app purchases, but required them to pay the company 27% of generated revenue. —AN
More tech
—EA lays off 300 people. Three years of cuts at the U.S. game-maker.
—Robinhood revenue jumps. Q1 sales up 50% to $927 million, beating estimates.
—Microsoft will take U.S. gov’t to court to protect European operations.
—eBay forecast tops estimates. Q2 revenue gaining momentum, outgoing CFO says.
—Mastercard adds agentic AI to payments. I didn’t mean to buy another guitar; the agent made me do it 😅
—Visa adds agentic AI to payments. We’re sensing a trend here!
—Google sharing search data? A “de facto” divestiture of Chrome, Sundar Pichai says.
—Qualcomm shares drop 5%. Revenue up, but anxiety about the unknown effects of the trade war.
—Intel’s chief commercial officer resigns effective June 30, per an SEC filing.
—Duolingo adds 148 language courses, developed rapidly using generative AI.
—Ripple proposes Circle takeover. Its $4-5 billion bid was reportedly rejected as too low.
—Xiaomi unveils AI model. The open-source entry is called MiMo.
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