As President Trump’s tariffs have upended global trade, many eyes have been on Silicon Valley and how the biggest tech companies — including Meta — intend to weather the storm.
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, told investors he had a plan.
In a quarterly earnings call, Mr. Zuckerberg said his company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, would lean on five pillars that he saw as its strengths. They included using artificial intelligence to improve the company’s ads and increase the time people spend on the platforms, making more money from messaging apps and doubling down on A.I. investments.
The plan is already working, he said, adding that he expected continued strong revenue growth in Meta’s advertising business.
“This has been a good start to what I expect to continue to be an intense year,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Even with our significant investments, we don’t need to succeed in all of these areas to have a good” return on investment.
“But if we do, I think we’ll feel wildly good about what’s happening,” he added.
Mr. Zuckerberg’s optimism contrasted with comments made by executives at other companies in recent weeks, many of whom have given muted guidance or spoken of the fallout they might see from Mr. Trump’s tariffs. His remarks carry weight as Meta is often regarded as a bellwether for the tech industry, especially in online advertising.
For the first quarter, Meta posted revenue of $42.3 billion, up 16 percent from a year earlier and above Wall Street estimates of $41.3 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet, a market analysis firm. Profit was $16.6 billion, up 35 percent from $12.4 billion a year earlier and surpassing estimates of $13.6 billion.
Meta said it expected revenue of $42.5 billion to $45.5 billion for the current quarter, with the high end of that range above Wall Street expectations of $43.8 billion. Its shares rose more than 5 percent in after-hours trading.
Meta’s business has been robust in recent years as the company has invested in A.I. to suggest different posts, videos and ads to users. Mr. Zuckerberg has said the investments have kept people coming back to Meta’s apps more regularly and clicking more relevant ads.
But the company faces new challenges in the Trump era. The tariffs may affect some of Meta’s largest initiatives, including spending billions on infrastructure projects like data centers, which use raw materials that have been hammered by Mr. Trump’s import taxes.
Meta expects to spend even more on those infrastructure investments. On Wednesday, it raised its capital expenditure forecast for this year to $64 billion to $72 billion, up from $60 billion to $65 billion.
Meta has also faced questions about its main revenue source: selling digital ads to brands and retailers, both large and small. The more that small businesses are hit with tariffs, the less they can afford to spend on Facebook and Instagram ads.
Mr. Trump set the highest tariffs on imports from China, and Chinese e-commerce powerhouses like Shein and Temu are especially important to Meta’s business. In 2023, Chinese companies accounted for 10 percent of Meta’s revenue.
Wednesday’s earnings did not show an advertising pullback, as Mr. Trump’s tariffs were announced in April and the earnings period ended in March.
But in the earnings call, Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said “some” Asian retailers had already reduced their advertising spending on the company’s platforms in anticipation of the end of a U.S. trade loophole on Friday. The loophole, called the de minimis exemption, exempts imported goods worth less than $800 from duties and taxes.
Meta’s financial guidance takes into account “uncertainty” in “how the macro environment will evolve over time,” Ms. Li said, but she avoided mentioning Mr. Trump and his economic plans directly.
Meta is also undergoing an antitrust trial in Washington over whether it illegally quashed competition in social networking by buying Instagram and WhatsApp when they were young start-ups. The outcome of the multiweek trial, which is the first major tech case prosecuted by the current Trump administration, could reshape the U.S. antitrust landscape and the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Last week, the European Union said it was fining Meta 200 million euros ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, a 2022 law intended to increase competition in the digital economy.
The company said on Wednesday that it would monitor the “active regulatory landscape,” which could “significantly impact” its core business.