This week marks the peak of earnings season for US stocks, with star tech stocks taking center stage. After Wednesday's close, Google and Microsoft... Meta released its latest financial report, and besides revenue and profit, the market focus was on artificial intelligence. Capital expenditure growth trend in the field.
According to the schedule, tomorrow (Thursday) Apple and Amazon The earnings report will be released soon, and Nvidia, as the first company to surpass a market capitalization of $5 trillion... Its results will be revealed at the end of the earnings season, which will take place in about a month.
Google's revenue exceeded expectations, sending its shares up over 6% in after-hours trading.
Google's third-quarter earnings report showed total revenue of $102.35 billion, exceeding market expectations of $99.89 billion. Search revenue reached $56.56 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year. YouTube advertising revenue was $10.26 billion, exceeding expectations of $10.01 billion. Google Cloud revenue was $15.15 billion, a 35% year-over-year increase, exceeding expectations of $14.74 billion.
Net income rose to $34.97 billion, or $2.87 per share (EPS), compared to $26.3 billion in the same period last year. It's worth noting that in September, EU regulators fined Google $3.45 billion for antitrust violations in its highly profitable advertising technology business, impacting the quarterly net income.
Google stated that its cloud computing ... The business maintained steady growth momentum. At the same time, the company also announced an upward revision of its 2025 capital expenditure forecast. "With continued growth across all businesses and rising demand from cloud customers, we now expect capital expenditures in the range of $91 billion to $93 billion in 2025." Earlier this year, Google had already raised its 2025 capital expenditure forecast from $75 billion to $85 billion, with the majority of the funds planned for data centers. Construction of technological infrastructure, etc.
In the earnings statement, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, "We continue to drive strong growth in new businesses. Google Cloud is growing faster, with $155 billion in backlog at the end of the quarter."
Meta raised its capital expenditure guidance, causing its stock to plunge 8% in after-hours trading.
Meta's third-quarter earnings report showed total revenue of $51.24 billion, a 26% year-over-year increase, exceeding market expectations of $49.41 billion. Advertising revenue reached $50.08 billion, also a 26% year-over-year increase, exceeding the estimated $48.59 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) were $1.08, compared to market expectations of $6.69.
Meta reported a one-time non-cash income tax expense of $15.93 billion due to the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill proposed by President Trump. However, the company expects the bill to "significantly reduce" its U.S. federal cash tax expenses for the remainder of 2025 and into the years to come.
Meta expects fourth-quarter revenue to be in the range of $56 billion to $59 billion, with the midpoint of that range exceeding analysts' previous expectations.
Meta raised the lower end of its total spending range for this year by $2 billion, bringing the adjusted full-year spending to between $116 billion and $118 billion (previously expected to be between $114 billion and $118 billion). At the same time, the company also raised its 2025 capital expenditure guidance, adjusting the range to between $70 billion and $72 billion (previously expected to be between $66 billion and $72 billion).
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated during the earnings call that the company's growing demand for computing power due to its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives is driving increased spending in data centers and cloud services. "This means that significantly larger investments in this area in the near future are very likely to translate into profitability," he added.
Microsoft Azure revenue surged 40%, then fell more than 3% in after-hours trading.
Microsoft 's third-quarter earnings report showed revenue of $77.67 billion, a year-over-year increase of 18%, exceeding analysts' expectations of $75.33 billion. The Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes Azure cloud services, generated $30.9 billion in revenue this quarter, a year-over-year increase of 28%, exceeding the consensus expectation of $30.25 billion. Azure cloud service revenue grew by 40% year-over-year, exceeding the expected growth rate of 38.2%. The Productivity and Business Processes segment, which includes Office software and LinkedIn, generated $33 billion in revenue, exceeding the consensus expectation of $32.33 billion.
Net income rose to $27.7 billion, or $3.72 per share (EPS), compared with $24.67 billion, or $3.30 per share (EPS), in the same period last year.
Cloud services remain a core driver of Microsoft's growth. —This business is a major beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom. Last quarter, Microsoft disclosed the revenue scale of its Azure cloud infrastructure business for the first time: Azure and other cloud service revenue will grow by 34% year-on-year in fiscal year 2025, exceeding $75 billion.
Microsoft's strong momentum in the field of artificial intelligence is largely attributed to its close partnership with OpenAI. On Tuesday, OpenAI announced the completion of its restructuring and officially disclosed Microsoft's shareholding in the company. Under the new structure, OpenAI's non-profit parent company will hold 26% of its for-profit subsidiary (worth approximately $130 billion); Microsoft will hold 27% (worth approximately $135 billion); and the remaining 47% will be held by current and former OpenAI employees and investors.
(Article source: CBN)
