Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Meta beat sales and earnings estimates in the first quarter and raised capital expenditures as it stepped up its push to lead in artificial intelligence.
Revenues in the first three months ended March rose 16 per cent from a year ago to $42.3bn, beating expectations for $41.4bn. Net income jumped 35 per cent to $16.7bn, well above consensus estimates of $13.5bn. However, this was down from the previous quarter, when Meta reached more than $20bn. The shares were up more than 4 per cent after-hours.
The company forecast its second-quarter revenues would be $42.5bn to $45.5bn, compared with consensus estimates of $43.8bn. It also raised its anticipated full-year capex to between $64bn and $72bn, from $60bn and $65bn, as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on plans to make Meta an “AI leader”.
“We’ve had a strong start to an important year, our community continues to grow and our business is performing very well,” Zuckerberg said.
This is a developing story
