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Meta posts sharply higher Q4 profit, revenue, topping Wall Street's expectations

Meta posts sharply higher Q4 profit, revenue, topping Wall Street's expectations

The Hill29-01-2025

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Meta Platforms Inc. posted sharply higher profit and revenue for its fourth quarter on Wednesday, thanks to higher ad revenue on its social media properties, sending its shares up in after-hours trading even as it forecast increasing expenses on its artificial intelligence efforts.
The Menlo Park, California-based company earned $20.83 billion, or $8.02 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's up 49% from $14.02 billion, or $5.33 per share, in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue grew 21% to $48.39 billion from $40.11 billion.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $6.76 per share on revenue of $47 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.
'We continue to make good progress on AI, glasses, and the future of social media,' said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.
For the current quarter, Meta said expects revenue of $39.5 billion to $41.8 billion. Analysts are expecting revenue at the high end of that range — $41.68 billion.
The company also said it expects expenses in the range of $114 billion to $119 billion, driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation. Meta had 74,067 employees as of Dec. 31, up 10% from a year earlier.
'Meta's Q4 performance underscores the company's resilience in a still-uncertain digital ad market. By beating both earnings and revenue estimates, they've demonstrated that cost discipline and efficiency gains are paying dividends,' said Jesse Cohen, an analyst with Investing.com. 'However, the real headline is their commitment to aggressive capital expenditures. This signals Meta is doubling down on its AI infrastructure and metaverse ambitions, even as investors grapple with the costs.'
Separately, Meta also confirmed a report that it has agreed to pay roughly $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit that President Donald Trump brought against the company and Zuckerberg after Trump's accounts were suspended following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Meta's stock rose $13.53, or 2%, to $690.02 in after-hours trading.

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Low-carbon jet fuel company foresees huge investment in western North Dakota
Low-carbon jet fuel company foresees huge investment in western North Dakota

Yahoo

time25 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Low-carbon jet fuel company foresees huge investment in western North Dakota

Chris Ryan, right, president and chief operating officer of renewable fuels company Gevo, speaks June 10, 2025, in West Fargo, N.D., at the Midwest Ag Summit. At left is Greg Lardy, vice president for agriculture at North Dakota State University. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor) WEST FARGO, N.D. — The demand for jet fuel is going up. The demand for gasoline is going down. That's the simple explanation from Chris Ryan, the president and chief operating officer of Gevo, on why the company plans to add a sustainable aviation fuel plant to the corn-based ethanol plant it purchased at Richardton in southwest North Dakota. Ryan said the low-carbon jet fuel won't come cheap – throwing out a ballpark figure of $500 million for a potential project still years down the road. Ryan spoke Tuesday in Fargo at the Midwest Agriculture Summit hosted by The Chamber of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo. Colorado-based Gevo bought the Red Trail Energy ethanol plant at Richardton last year. The Red Trail plant was the first ethanol producer in the country to implement carbon sequestration — capturing carbon dioxide from the plant's corn fermentation tanks and pumping it into permanent underground storage. The CO2 sequestration is key in lowering the carbon intensity score of the plant and for sustainable jet fuel production. Low-carbon fuels can fetch a higher price than traditional liquid fuels. 'We could make gasoline, but it's a diminishing market,' Ryan said. 'So jet fuel is a kind of sexy thing to talk about these days.' In an interview with the North Dakota Monitor, Ryan said there is plenty of room to add a jet fuel plant at the 500-acre Richardton site. He said the plant would add about 50 jobs, about the same number that the ethanol plant employs. Expanding the ethanol plant also is a possibility, Ryan said. The company also is considering adding wind turbines at Richardton to provide power and lower the carbon score even further, he said. Even though renewable energy tax credits are a possible target for budget cuts under President Donald Trump, he said wind energy at the site still makes good economic sense. Corn price connection to carbon capture hard to pin down Gevo also has plans for a sustainable aviation fuel plant at Lake Preston in southeast South Dakota. The future of that plant depends in large part on the five-state Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project that would take carbon emissions from ethanol plants to western North Dakota for underground storage. Ryan said when the South Dakota project was conceived, it did not include carbon capture. But as construction costs soared with the COVID-19 pandemic, he said it became necessary to sign on to the Summit pipeline project. He said the federal tax credits for carbon sequestration would help offset the higher building costs. The project has stalled as Summit has run into permitting challenges and a new state law giving landowners more power in easement negotiations. 'We really need the pipeline,' Ryan said. He added that Gevo bought more land than it needed for the project. That is allowing for other projects at the site, benefiting Gevo and the Lake Preston area, he said. The Summit delays spurred the purchase of Red Trail, which had the advantage of sitting almost on top of an area suitable for underground carbon storage. 'We had to take our destiny into our own hands,' Ryan said, and not be dependent on the Summit pipeline. He said Gevo can 'copy and paste' the engineering work done for the South Dakota site to the Richardton site. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX While the carbon dioxide from the Richardton plant is being pumped underground, Ryan said Gevo recognizes that it has a potential for use in North Dakota's oilfields, making oil wells more productive through what is called enhanced oil recovery. North Dakota leaders have been trumpeting the economic benefits of enhanced oil recovery. Ryan said if the oil industry is willing to pay for carbon dioxide to use in enhanced oil recovery, Gevo would sell the CO2 rather than pump it underground. 'We don't care where the revenue comes from, right? Today, we sequester it for a tax credit, and we can sell carbon credits,' Ryan said. 'Or you can sell it to somebody for enhanced oil recovery.' He said he sees it as another advantage of doing business in North Dakota. 'People in North Dakota get that, they understand the value of that,' Ryan said. This story was updated to correct Chris Ryan's title. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

4 observations about Apple's low-key WWDC 2025
4 observations about Apple's low-key WWDC 2025

Fast Company

time34 minutes ago

  • Fast Company

4 observations about Apple's low-key WWDC 2025

At Apple's annual WWDC keynote, the highest-level subject is always the future of its software platforms. And the big news in that department usually stares us right in the face. In 2023, for example, it was the debut of Apple Vision Pro, the company's entry into the headset market and its first all-new experience since the Apple Watch. Last year brought Apple Intelligence, its branded take on what AI should look like as a core element of computing experiences. And then there was Monday morning's WWDC 2025 keynote, as streamed online to millions and screened to a select audience of in-person attendees at Apple Park. After Apple's embarrassing inability to ship the AI-infused update to Siri it showed off at WWDC 2024, it was hardly surprising that this year's event didn't bet everything on whipping up a further AI frenzy. That alone set it apart from last month's Google I/O keynote, whose topics consisted of AI, AI, and more AI, with some AI drizzled on top. Apple did introduce some new AI during the keynote— quite a bit of it. Overall, though, the event felt like an act of counterprogramming. Instead of positioning itself as a leader in AI—or at least quashing fears that it's a laggard —the company seemed happy being itself. From the unified new design to old features (phone calls!) turning up in new places (the Mac!), it focused on giving consumers even more reasons to own and use as many of its products as possible. Herewith a few of the impressions I took away from my morning at Apple Park: Liquid Glass is classic Apple, in the Steve Jobs sense. In 2012, one of Tim Cook's first dramatic moves after succeeding Jobs as CEO was to oust software chief Scott Forstall. That led to a reorganization that put Jony Ive in charge of design for software as well as hardware. Ive's influence was seen in the iPhone's iOS 7 upgrade the company shipped the following year. It ditched the lush skeuomorphism of the iPhone's software up until that time for a far flatter look, bringing to mind the understated, Dieter Rams -like feel of an Ive MacBook, manifested in pixels rather than aluminum. Ive left in 2019, but the principles he instilled have informed Apple software ever since. But now there's Liquid Glas s, a new aesthetic Apple is rolling out across its portfolio of platforms. It's glossy, dimensional, pseudorealistic, and animated—a dramatic departure from iOS 7-era restraint, but reminiscent of both earlier iOS releases and also older Apple software all the way back to the first version of the Mac's OS X in 2000. That was the one with buttons that Jobs said people would want to lick —a memorable design imperative that is suddenly relevant again. As my colleague Mark Wilson writes, Liquid Glass isn't about adding new functionality to Apple devices. It might not even be about making them easier to use—in fact, when an interface introduces transparency effects and other visual flourishes, legibility is at risk. It does, however, look cool in a way that's classically Apple, and which the Apple of recent years had deemphasized. The iPad has left limbo . . . for Macland. For years, Apple seemed to have reached a mental standstill with the iPad. The company clearly wanted its tablet to be something distinct from a Mac, but it also appeared to be short on ideas that were different than the Mac, especially when it came to building out iPadOS as a productivity platform. End result: The platform has foundered rather than matured. With iPadOS 26, the iPad will finally see a lot of meaningful change all at once, and most of it is distinctly Maclike. It's getting a menu bar. Windows that float and overlap. A more full-featured Files app and, for the first time, a Preview app. Even the quirky circular cursor gives way to a more conventional pointy one. As an unabashed iPad diehard, I admit to my fair share of trepidation about all this. The iPad's abandonment of interface cruft in favor of considered minimalism is a huge reason why I've been using one as my primary computer since 2011: I don't like to wrangle windows or scour menus for the features I need, hidden among those I don't. Maybe Apple has figured out how to retain what's great about the iPad even as it gives in to the temptation to borrow from the Mac. But I'm alarmed by the apparent disappearance of the iPad's foundational multitasking features in the first iPadOS 26 beta, and hope they'll return before the software ships this fall. VisionOS is still evolving, and that's good. It's been two years since Apple unveiled the Vision Pro and 17 months since it shipped. Rumors aside, we still aren't any closer to clarity on how the $3,500 headset might lead to a product that caters to a larger audience than, well, people who will pay $3,500 for a headset. Even Tim Cook says it isn't a mass-market product. Still, Apple's enthusiasm for spatial computing doesn't seem to be flagging. As previewed during the WWDC keynote, VisionOS 26 looks downright meaty, with more realistic-looking avatars for use in video calls, features for watching movies and playing games with Vision Pro-wearing friends, widgets you can stick on a wall or place on a mantel in the real world, AI-powered 3D effects for 2D photos, partnerships with companies such as GoPro and Sony, and more. None of these additions will prompt radically more people to spring for a Vision Pro in its current form. But assuming that the headset doesn't turn out to be a dead end, Apple's current investment could help a future, more affordable version offer compelling experiences from day one. It's still unclear whether ChatGPT is a feature or a stopgap. Apple's own AI assistant, Siri, was acknowledged only at the start of the keynote, when Craig Federighi, senior VP of software engineering, mentioned last year's announcements and the decision to delay the newly AI-savvy version until it meets Apple's 'high-quality bar.' Another AI helper did pop up several times during the presentation, though: ChatGPT. For example, it powers a new Visual Intelligence feature that will let users ask questions about the stuff on-screen in any app. The keynote's example: Upon seeing an image of a mandolin in a social post, you can ask, 'Which rock songs is this instrument featured in?' Given that the new Siri features Apple revealed a year ago remain unfinished, adding a dash of ChatGPT here and there is an expedient way to maintain some AI momentum. But does the company see integrating the world's highest-profile LLM-based assistant as an attractive user benefit in itself—or just a placeholder until it can offer similar technology that's entirely under its own control? I'm still not sure. At WWDC 2024, Federighi also talked about incorporating other AI models, such as Google's Gemini, but no news has emerged on that front since. Even during a pivotal, unpredictable time for the tech industry, one of the WWDC keynote's purposes remains straightforward. Apple needs to get consumers excited for the software it will ship in the fall, which isn't necessarily synonymous with blowing them away through sheer force of AI breakthroughs. In a Bluesky conversation, one commenter suggested to me that people aren't actually clamoring for AI at all —a take that has a whiff of truth to it even if it isn't the whole story. Ultimately, users want pleasant products that help them get stuff done, whether in a personal context, a work environment, or somewhere in between.

Tesla Had To Redesign The Cybertruck Because Engineers Couldn't Make It Amphibious Like Musk Wanted
Tesla Had To Redesign The Cybertruck Because Engineers Couldn't Make It Amphibious Like Musk Wanted

Yahoo

time36 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Tesla Had To Redesign The Cybertruck Because Engineers Couldn't Make It Amphibious Like Musk Wanted

If you want to make sure everyone immediately knows not to hang out with you, there's no better truck to buy than the Tesla Cybertruck. If you want something that does regular truck stuff, though, you probably want to look elsewhere. Since the Cybertruck went on sale, it's been recalled eight times, for everything from body panels that fly off to unintended acceleration, and it also infamously may not survive a car wash. But how did we get from Tesla promising a go-anywhere, conquer-any-terrain truck to the current disaster? According to the Wall Street Journal, it's because the initial design was scrapped, and the final design was rushed. It would have probably helped if there had been a clear, final design brief that outlined specific goals for engineers to achieve, but instead, Musk preferred to randomly tweet about new features the Cybertruck would have. The engineering team reportedly took those tweets seriously and attempted to deliver everything Musk promised online, including the part where he claimed it would be amphibious, but when that ended up being too hard, the engineers were forced to give up and start over in an attempt to deliver something Cybertruck-shaped: Former employees said they took Musk's social posts as orders, but the engineering proved difficult. By 2022, it was clear internally that Cybertruck wouldn't be able to meet all Musk's criteria, so engineers scrapped an early design and started over—developing a smaller, landlocked version of the truck, the people said. So much for the supposed late-2021 production start that we were initially promised. Read more: Buy One Of These Electric Pickup Trucks Instead Of Humiliating Yourself With A Tesla Cybertruck With only about a year and a half to reportedly develop and test the production version of the Cybertruck, it isn't exactly surprising that problems soon appeared. But while Tesla blamed the truck's unintended acceleration issue on "[a]n unapproved change introduced lubricant (soap) to aid in the component assembly of the pad onto the accelerator pedal," one source told the WSJ the company already knew it was an issue and simply didn't fix it before starting production: An internal investigation found the issue was the result of an "unapproved change," in which Tesla employees used soap as a lubricant to attach the pad, according to the recall notice. Inside Tesla, the accelerator pad had been a known issue starting with the prototype, according to an employee who worked on the part. The manufacturing team also identified the part as problematic, this person said. The windshield and its massive single wiper also quickly caused problems, as the glass would sometimes show up from the supplier already cracked or crack during handling at the factory. As for the giant windshield wiper, it also proved to be too big for the motor they used, leading to another recall. According to the WSJ, the problem with the wiper was already a known issue, but production began before they fixed it, even though that wasn't supposed to happen: The wiper had been flagged nearly a year before, two people who worked on the Cybertruck said. It was one of the first issues identified on the vehicles, at which point it was classified as a "gating issue," which meant that it needed to be resolved before production could move forward. Had the Tesla Cybertruck been a huge hit, you could have perhaps made the argument that Musk's decision to put it into production before all the problems had been fixed was at least a good business decision. The truck reportedly had more than a million pre-orders, and with other electric trucks already on sale, maybe risking customers' lives with a little unintended acceleration would have been worth the risk of a lawsuit. Except the actual orders never actually appeared. The company just couldn't convert pre-orders into actual orders, and when Tesla issued its eighth recall for the Cybertruck, it had been on sale for more than a year, but Tesla had only sold about 46,000 of them. Maybe Tesla shouldn't have set up the production line to allegedly produce 250,000 Cybertrucks per year, or perhaps it should have actually fixed all the problems it knew already existed. Regardless, even with big discounts, unsold Cybertrucks quickly began piling up, forcing Tesla to find places to store its unwanted inventory. Then again, the biggest issue with Cybertruck sales probably wasn't the quality of the truck itself. It was the part where Musk decided to jump into politics, spouting toxic, ultra-far-right views that killed a whole lot of people's interest in Tesla as a brand. Musk's alliance with Republicans also appears to have blown up in his face recently, although Musk could still find a way to worm his way back into Trump's good graces. You never know. Trump could eventually need someone to help ensure more babies get HIV. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.

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