Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Wednesday, signaling that its artificial intelligence-powered tools helped pull in advertising dollars despite tariff-related economic growth fears.
Shares of the company were up nearly 3% in extended trading.
The social media company reported revenue of $42.31 billion for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $41.40 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It also lowered its total expenses forecast for the year to be between $113 billion and $118 billion, from its earlier expectations of $114 billion to $119 billion.
Meta’s massive user base on its social media platforms makes it a reliable go-to for advertisers at a time when US tariff-induced uncertainty has prompted companies to tighten marketing budgets and delay campaigns.
The results come as Meta faces a high-stakes trial in Washington, in which the Federal Trade Commission is seeking to unwind the company’s acquisitions of prized assets Instagram and WhatsApp.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is also fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race, after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models, released earlier this month, fell short of performance expectations.
A day earlier, smaller rival Snap held back its second-quarter forecast and said that economic uncertainty and Trump administration’s ending of a duty-free import loophole was affecting its ad business.
