Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla have been duking it out with their balance sheets in the last quarter, each with their own successes and a few stumbles. ecosystem ha exceeded expectations with revenues up 12%, but the market reacted with some skepticism, causing the stock to slide by more than 4%. Despite the incredible performance of its cloud, the numbers did not convince everyone. Meta, on the other hand, celebrated a Useful record, but his Forecasts more cautious for the coming year have left some doubt. The stock, however, showed a nice jump in after-hours trading, over 2%. And finally, Tesla, With its margins falling, initially saw the stock lose 4% in trading after the close, but quickly recovered (flying above +4%) thanks to promises of new models by 2025.
Microsoft: Solid Growth but Clouds Over Cloud
ecosystem has concluded the second quarter of the fiscal year with a solid performance, but not without shadows. revenues rose 12% to $69,6 billion, beating Wall Street forecasts of around $68,78 billion.Net income rose 10% to $24,1 billion, with earnings per share of $3,23, above analysts' expectations of $3,11. Despite these positive figures, the market reacted cautiously, sending the price of actions of Microsoft by about 4,6% in after-hours trading, a sign that some factors, unfortunately, have not fully satisfied investors' expectations.
Revenue growth was mainly driven by Cloud Computing Division, which increased 21% to $40,9 billion. However, expectations for this segment were higher, with a forecast of $41,1 billion, suggesting that the push into cloud has not fully met its targets. Within this division, the segment IntelligentCloud, which includes the platform Azure, contributed $25,54 billion in total revenue, up 19%. Again, the figure missed analysts' forecast of $25,83 billion.
Despite this slight disappointment in the cloud, Microsoft continues to bet decisively onartificial intelligence, forecasting Azure growth of 31% to 32% in the next quarter, but still below the consensus of 33,4%. This lower-than-market estimate fuels some concern about the pace of industry expansion, but confidence in Azure and AI remains high. In addition, the segment Productivity and Business Processes, which includes subscriptions a Office e LinkedIn, posted revenue of $29,44 billion, up 13,9% and beating estimates of $28,89 billion.
The sector More Personal Computing, which includes Windows, Bing, Surface e Xbox, generated $14,65 billion, unchanged from the previous year but still above the forecast of $14,29 billion. sales di devices e licenses Windows operating system shipments increased by 4%, while PC shipments, according to data from Gartner, increased by 1,4%.
A further interesting development concerns the launch of the AI R1 model of the Chinese startup DeepSeek Platform Microsoft Azure. This move has sparked curiosity, especially considering that OpenAI, a historic partner of Microsoft, has insinuated that the Chinese giant could having stolen intellectual property of the parent company of ChatGpt, thus violating the terms of service. Despite the suspicions and shadows related to privacy (since DeepSeek stores user data on servers located in China), the R1 model is currently among the most advanced on the market and Microsoft has decided not to miss the opportunity to integrate it into its cloud ecosystem. The allure of DeepSeek's new models, therefore, seems to prevail over ethical and legal doubts, at least for the moment.
In parallel, also Alibaba has released a new version of its AI model Qwen 2.5, a timing that did not go unnoticed, considering that the launch took place right on the day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. This maneuver demonstrates the fierce competition in the field of artificial intelligence.
Meta: Record profit, but with declining forecasts
The Meta – which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger – closed out a strong year, with results that have exceeded Wall Street expectationsThe fourth quarter of 2024 saw a Useful nett of $20,84 billion, with earnings per share of $8,02. This was a significant jump from analysts' forecasts of $6,68 earnings per share. Revenue of $48,39 billion (+21%) was also above expectations of $46,97 billion. For the full year, revenue reached $164,5 billion, up 22% from 2023. The stock is showing a positive trend in after-hours trading: +2,29%.
However, the Forecasts for first quarter of 2025 they are weaker. Meta estimated revenues between 39,5 and 41,8 billion dollars, lower than the 41,72 billion expected by the market. The main reason for this more cautious forecast is the slowdown in the advertising sector, which accounts for the majority of Meta’s revenue. The company is struggling to attract new advertising dollars to its social media platforms, which are crucial to supporting its ambitious AI and metaverse projects.
Meta has announced a 65 billion capital spending plan of dollars by 2025, with the aim of strengthening its infrastructure AI and enhance the metaverse, including the development of smart glasses and augmented reality systems. In addition, the company plans to increase the assumptions for AI-related roles, as they face growing competition from companies like TikTok and DeepSeek.
Tesla: Margins Down, But New Models Coming in 2025
Tesla faced a less brilliant quarter than other technology giants. The profit margin gross Tesla’s fourth-quarter margin fell to 16,3%, well below the consensus forecast of 19,03%. Excluding regulatory credits, the margin fell to 13,59%. By comparison, Tesla had a 19,8% margin in the previous quarter.
The decline was caused by the need to offer discounts e funding cheaper to stimulate demand, which has slowed due to increased competition and high interest rates. However, revenue from carbon credits increased by 2% to $55,6 billion.
Tesla is facing a growing competition, both from the Chinese manufacturer BYD and from European car manufacturers such as BMW and Volkswagen. Despite this, Tesla has a recovery plan that includes new models in 2025, Including a economy version of the Model Y, which could cost less than $30. Although the project was initially postponed in favor of the Cybercab, Or the robotic axis of Tesla, now the renewal of the range seems to be back at the center of attention.
Tesla also aims to expand its market not only with electric cars, but also with with e intelligence artificial, in particular on the guide independent, which could be a deciding factor for the future.
In the meantime, however, the reality of the numbers is not the brightest. The annual deliveries Tesla's sales in 2023 fell by 1,1%, an unprecedented figure. Despite this, the US giant is not giving up, aiming for sales growth of between 20% and 30% in 2025, also thanks to the launch of models based on current platforms and the long-awaited debut of the Cybertruck, the pick-up that has so far disappointed.
Looking to annual data, revenues of the automotive division were 77 billion dollars, with a decrease of 6% compared to 82,4 billion in 2023. TheNet income attributable to shareholders fell 23% to $8,4 billion, while operating expenses increased 18% to $10,3 billion. This increase in expenses was mainly attributed to investments in infrastructure, the development of artificial intelligence and the expansion of production lines.
Il title Tesla initially lost 4% in after-hours trading due to lower-than-expected margins, but then recovered 4,14% on promises of new models by mid-2025. Tesla continues to maintain a capitalization of the market impressive, which saw a real surge after the announcement of the Cybercab project in October and during Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The value of the Texan company doubled, reaching 1.300 trillion dollars, despite the environmental policies of the previous government being questioned.
