TL;DR 5May25 .... Big Tech Quarterly Reports

Last update: Monday 5/5/25

Welcome to our 5May25 TL;DR summaries by 

ChatGPT of the past week's top story on our "Useful AI News" page ➡ Big Tech Quarterly Reports ... Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft

 

Podcast ➡ HERE
TL;DR ➡ HERE

ChatGPT's TL;DR summary of top story ...

1. Microsoft | 2 Meta | 3. Apple | Amazon | Alphabet

Big Tech Quarterly Reports ...

1. Big Tech Quarterly Reports ...
   -- "Microsoft logged double-digit-percentage revenue growth in its fiscal third quarter, with all three of the company’s main business units topping internal projections", Dan Gallagher and Connor Hart, WSJ, 4/30/25 
   ... This story also covered by The Verge, GeekWire, Bloomberg, Forbes, NY Times
   
   -- "Meta Posts $42 Billion in Sales, Points to Strong Growth", Meghan Bobrowsky, WSJ, 4/30/25 
   ... This story also covered by CNBC, AP, Business Insider, Market Watch, NY Times, 
   
   -- "Apple Says Most of Its Devices Shipped Into U.S. Will Be From India, Vietnam", Rolfe Winkler, WSJ, 5/1/25 
   ... This story also covered by Business Insider, CNN, Bloomberg, MacRumors, Forbes, 9to5Mac, 
   
   -- "Amazon Says Operating Profits May Decline Amid Economic Uncertainty", Karen Weise, NY Times, 5/1/25 
   ... This story also covered by WSJ, CNBC, Bloomberg, Barron's, Forbes, 
   
   -- "Alphabet Reports 12% Increase in Revenue", David Streitfeld, NY Times, 4/24/25
   ... This story also covered by WSJ, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider

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PROMPT:

Here comes a pair of articles. Each article covers the most recent quarterly report of a big tech corporation … e.g., Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Provide a combined summary of the pair of articles.

Your combined summary should address the following issues:

— Overall revenue, increase or decrease.

— Overall profit, increase or decrease. 

— Revenue from cloud services, increase or decrease, but only for Microsoft, Alpha/Google, or Amazon.

— AI related revenue, increase or decrease … if provided.

— Guidance about future AI related capital investments, if provided.

— Stock market reaction, up, down, or no change.

Two good articles are provided because one article might omit an issue; but it is highly likely that two good articles will cover all of the issues.

Each pair of articles will be preceded by the name of the big tech corporation whose quarterly report you will summarize. Your combined summary of a pair should be presented in bullet format for easier reading. And your summary should be understandable by savvy computer users.

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Microsoft ...

• Text WSJ
• Text The Verge

Microsoft Q3 FY2025 Combined Summary
(Wall Street Journal + The Verge)

• Overall Revenue:

  • Increased by 13% year-over-year, reaching $70.1 billion, beating analyst expectations ($68.42B).

• Overall Profit:

  • Net income rose 18%, totaling $25.8 billion, or $3.46 per diluted share (vs. $3.22 expected).

• Cloud Services Revenue:

  • Azure revenue grew 35% (WSJ), ahead of Wall Street’s 31% expectation.

  • Total Microsoft Cloud revenue rose 20%, hitting $42.4 billion.

  • Intelligent Cloud segment (includes Azure and server products) revenue rose 21% to $26.8B.

  • Server products and cloud services rose 22% year-over-year.

• AI-Related Revenue:
  Microsoft did not break out specific AI revenue figures, but:

  • • CEO Satya Nadella emphasized strong demand for AI and cloud computing.

    • Growth in Microsoft 365 AI Copilot subscriptions due to bundling AI into Office apps.

    • Price increases tied to Copilot Pro led to higher revenue per user.

• AI Capital Investment Guidance:

  • Microsoft reported $21.4 billion in capital expenditures (including finance leases), $1B below expectations.

  • CFO Amy Hood stated capex will rise in the next fiscal year, but at a slower rate than this year’s 57% increase.

• Stock Market Reaction:
  Microsoft’s stock jumped 7% in after-hours trading following the earnings release — reversing the trend of prior negative post-earnings moves.

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Meta ...

• WSJ
• NY Times

Meta Q1 2025 Combined Summary
(Wall Street Journal + New York Times)

• Overall Revenue:

  • $42.3 billion, up 16% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $41.3 billion.

• Overall Profit:

  • $16.6 billion, up 35% from $12.4 billion the year prior — also well above analyst expectations ($13.6B).

• Cloud Services Revenue:

  • Not applicable — Meta does not operate a cloud platform like Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, so no cloud revenue was reported.

• AI-Related Revenue:

  • Meta did not break out a specific dollar figure for AI revenue.

  • However, AI was emphasized as a key driver of ad performance and user engagement:

    • AI is used to optimize ad targeting and increase time spent on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

    • Zuckerberg highlighted business messaging and advanced advertising tools as future AI monetization channels.

    • Meta recently launched a stand-alone Meta AI app and held its first AI developer conference.

• AI Capital Investment Guidance:

  • Capital expenditure forecast was raised from $60–65 billion to $64–72 billion for 2025.

  • Increase driven largely by infrastructure spending to support AI, including data centers.

  • Despite increased capex, Meta says total expenses will drop by ~$1 billion due to cost discipline elsewhere.

• Stock Market Reaction:

  • Meta shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading, as strong earnings and bullish guidance reassured investors.

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Apple ...

• WSJ
• Bloomberg
  

Apple Q2 FY2025 Combined Summary
(Wall Street Journal + Bloomberg)

• Overall Revenue:

  • $95.4 billion, up 5% year-over-year, beating estimates of $94.6 billion.

  • Growth driven by iPhone sales and product refreshes across iPad, Mac, and services.

• Overall Profit:

  • $24.8 billion, up nearly 5%, with earnings per share of $1.65, beating expectations of $1.62.

• Cloud Services Revenue:

  • Not applicable — Apple does not operate a public cloud platform like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

• AI-Related Revenue:

  • No specific AI revenue was disclosed.

  • CEO Tim Cook emphasized Apple is investing in personalized AI features, especially for Siri, but these are still delayed.

  • AI-related product enhancements are part of future plans, with new features expected later this year.

  • Apple launched the C1 modem chip in the iPhone 16e as a part of its internal tech push, but AI features were mostly described as in development.
    

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• AI Capital Investment Guidance:

  • Apple did not provide a specific AI capex figure.

  • However, it did highlight a significant supply chain shift, moving:

    • Majority of iPhone production for U.S. to India.

    • Nearly all other devices (iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, AirPods) to Vietnam.

  • These moves aim to mitigate tariff-related costs, which are expected to add $900 million in the current quarter.

• Stock Market Reaction:

• Shares fell ~3.7% following the earnings release.

• Investors remain concerned about:

• Tariff impacts (especially China exposure),

• China sales decline (down 2.3% to $16B),

• And Apple’s slower AI rollout compared to peers.

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Amazon

• WSJ
• NY Times

Amazon Q1 2025 Combined Summary
(Wall Street Journal + New York Times)

• Overall Revenue:

  • $155.7 billion, up 9% year-over-year, marking one of Amazon’s slowest growth rates since the pandemic.

  • Revenue growth met or slightly exceeded Wall Street expectations.

• Overall Profit:

  • $17.1 billion, up 64% from the previous year — significantly stronger than expected.

  • However, guidance for Q2 suggests possible decline in operating profit (forecast: $13B–$17.5B), causing investor caution.

• Cloud Services Revenue (AWS):

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $29.3 billion, up 17% year-over-year.

  • Growth slightly missed analyst expectations, especially in contrast to Microsoft’s Azure, which exceeded forecasts.

  • CEO Andy Jassy noted AWS could have grown more if not for data center capacity constraints, which the company is now working to resolve.

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• AI-Related Revenue:

  • Amazon did not separate out AI revenue, but:

    • Jassy stated that AI demand was strong, and constrained only by infrastructure limits.

    • AWS is central to Amazon’s AI expansion, as data centers are being scaled up to meet growing demand.

    • AI-related offerings are a key part of AWS’s future growth strategy.

• AI Capital Investment Guidance:

  • Amazon spent over $24 billion in capex in Q1 — a $2 billion drop from the previous quarter.

  • However, Amazon has reaffirmed plans to spend ~$100 billion in capital expenditures during 2025.

  • Much of this is expected to support data centers and AI infrastructure expansion.

• Stock Market Reaction:

  • Shares fell 3–4% in after-hours trading, despite strong profit and sales. The dip reflects:

  • • Cautious Q2 forecast, and

    • Concerns over tariff impacts, especially for third-party sellers sourcing goods from China.

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Alphabet (Google)

• WSJ
• NY Times

Alphabet (Google) Q1 2025 Combined Summary
(Wall Street Journal + New York Times)

• Overall Revenue:

  • $90.23 billion, up 12% year-over-year, slightly exceeding analyst expectations ($89.15B–$89.18B).

  • Growth was seen across all business units.

• Overall Profit:

  • Net income: $34.54 billion, up 46%, boosted partly by gains from equity investments.

  • Operating income: $30.6 billion, solidly beating expectations of $28.7 billion.

• Cloud Services Revenue (Google Cloud):

  • $12.3 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

  • Growth decelerated compared to Q4 2024 but remains strong.

  • Cloud continues to be one of Alphabet’s key strategic focus areas, especially as a profit driver.

• AI-Related Revenue:
  No specific AI revenue breakdown provided, but AI was a dominant theme:

  • CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted “momentum” in AI products like AI Overviews, now used by 1.5 billion users monthly.
  • 
    
  • Google is positioning generative AI as central to future search and advertising monetization.
    
    
  • Analysts noted that new AI competitors (OpenAI, Perplexity) pose growing threats to Google’s dominance in search.
    

• AI Capital Investment Guidance:

  • Alphabet’s capital expenditures hit a record $17.2 billion in Q1.

  • The company reaffirmed plans to spend $75 billion in capex for the year — more than double its historical average.

  • AI infrastructure and data center expansion are the primary drivers behind this spending surge.

• Stock Market Reaction:

  • Shares rose 5% in after-hours trading following the earnings release.

  • Market responded positively to:

    • Strong profits,

    • Better-than-expected operating income,

    • Continued commitment to AI growth.

  • However, no forward guidance was issued, leaving uncertainty about Q2 impacts from tariffs or ad market shifts.

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