Meta✴ reported revenue of $42 billion in the first quarter of 2025 and forecasts continued strong growth in the coming months, allaying fears that Donald Trump’s tariffs would hurt its international digital advertising business. The tech giant’s revenue growth was 16%, beating analysts’ forecasts, and net income reached $16.6 billion for the January-March period, sending Meta✴ shares up more than 4%.
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Meta✴ shares have previously been among the hardest hit since the 47th US president’s pricing plans were first announced. Digital advertising is the bulk of the company’s business, and in recent years the company has become more reliant on Chinese advertisers seeking to reach American consumers. Solid financial results in Q1 demonstrated the resilience of Meta✴’s business model even amid trade tensions between the US and China.
Trump has already renegotiated some reciprocal tariffs with other countries and expressed a willingness to negotiate with China to reduce duties, which have reached 145%. Even so, analysts are seeing early signs of a decline in ad spending. Snap shares tumbled on Tuesday after Snapchat’s parent company said it was struggling in the current quarter and declined to provide revenue guidance, citing market volatility.
Meta✴ needs advertising revenue to fund a capital expenditure plan of up to $65 billion aimed at developing AI. The company aims to become a leader in AI with its Meta✴ AI chatbot and open-source AI models Llama. Investments in AI infrastructure are a strategic priority for the company’s long-term growth.
Meta✴ held its debut AI developer conference on Tuesday. The company unveiled a standalone app for its AI assistant, which aims to reach 1 billion users by the end of the year, and announced new developer tools. The big highlight of the conference was an onstage interview between CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
At the same time, Meta✴ is engaged in an antitrust lawsuit that recently began in Washington. Lawyers for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claim that the company has an illegal monopoly in the social media sphere and are demanding that Instagram✴ and WhatsApp be forcibly separated from the company. Zuckerberg argued in the early days of the trial that Meta✴ does not have such a monopoly and has helped Instagram✴ and WhatsApp become more successful apps than they could have been without its help. Meta✴ noted in a recent report that the daily audience of its services has reached 3.43 billion users — an increase of 6% compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Before the trial began, Zuckerberg tried to ask Trump to negotiate a settlement. The deal never materialized. The lawsuit could have serious implications for Meta’s business structure✴ if the court upholds the FTC’s demands to undo its key acquisitions.