Analysts had forecast $7.2 billion in capital expenditures in the quarter, based on the company's annual forecast of $30 billion to $33 billion, which it kept unchanged. Spending on the AI retooling has spiked the company's capital expenditures, which came in slightly under expectations at $7.1 billion for the quarter. The social media giant faced a bruising 2022 as a pandemic-era e-commerce boom sputtered, while rivals like TikTok captured young users and Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) privacy updates cut access to the user data around which it built its ads business. Meta's strong guidance for Q2 revenue is another indicator that the company may be starting to come out of the woods." "In this economic environment-and after the disaster that was 2022-3% year over year revenue growth is an accomplishment. The results indicated that austerity drive was "off to a stronger than expected start for Meta," said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Meta has also kicked off an aggressive cost-cutting drive, with plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs and flatten its middle-management structure as it works towards Zuckerberg's goal of turning 2023 into the "year of efficiency". "So as a consumer we're maybe not seeing the fruits of their labor in that area, but it certainly seems as if they are able to use more advanced algorithms to maintain a certain level of ad targeting." "I think similar to Alphabet, a lot of Meta's AI investments have gone into the advertiser side," said James Cordwell, analyst at Atlantic Equities. "And to the contrary, we now have the capacity to do leading work in this space at scale."ĪI recommendations increased time spent on Instagram by 24% in the January-March quarter, Meta said. "At this point, we are no longer behind in building out our AI infrastructure," Zuckerberg said on a conference call. The company, which has been slow to adopt AI-friendly hardware and software systems for its main business, has carried out several expensive overhauls to bolster its core business, including a massive project to upgrade AI capacity. Meta narrowed its cost outlook range for the year, saying expenses could be less than the company forecast in March, and also beat expectations for first-quarter profit and revenue, which rose for the first time in nearly a year. Meta shares surged 12% in after hours trading, adding over $50 billion to its market value and continuing a rally in tech shares that started after Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) posted strong results on Tuesday. Now you have a Facebook shortcut on your home screen that takes you to a faster, permission-free, more battery-friendly Facebook.April 26 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that AI was helping the company boost traffic to Facebook and Instagram and earn more in ad sales, as it forecast quarterly revenue well above analyst expectations. Choose Shortcuts from the menu, select Bookmark, and choose the Facebook bookmark you just created.
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