By Meghan Bobrowsky

Meta Platforms said sales reached $42 billion in the first quarter and indicated growth would remain steady in the coming months, blunting concerns that President Trump's tariffs would harm its global digital ads business.

The social media giant said its sales grew by 16%, ahead of analyst expectations. Net income for the January-to-March period was $16.6 billion.

Meta projected revenue for the current quarter would increase between 8% and 16% year-over-year, sending shares up more than 3% in after-hours trading.

The company also said it lowered its estimate for its full-year expenses by $1 billion.

Meta's shares have been among the hardest hit since Trump first unveiled his tariff plans on April 2. Digital advertising makes up the vast majority of its business, and in recent years, the company has become more dependent on Chinese advertisers who want to reach American consumers.

Trump has since walked back some of his reciprocal tariffs on other countries and indicated that he's willing to negotiate with China to bring down levies on the country that he has said may reach as high as 145%.

Analysts say there are early signs that some advertisers have reduced spending. Snap shares plunged Tuesday after the Snapchat parent said it was seeing some headwinds in the current quarter and declined to provide a revenue estimate, citing volatility.

Meta needs its ad revenue to fund a capital spending plan of up to $65 billion to power its artificial intelligence ambitions. The company is trying to become a major player in the AI space, with its Meta AI chatbot and open-source model Llama.

On Tuesday, Meta hosted its inaugural AI conference for developers. The company launched a stand-alone app for its AI assistant -- which Meta wants to have 1 billion people using by the end of the year -- and announced new tools for developers. At the event, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg interviewed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella onstage.

Meta is also facing an antitrust trial that recently kicked off in Washington. Lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission allege that Meta has an illegal monopoly in the personal social networking space and wants its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to be undone.

Zuckerberg, in the opening days of the trial, argued that Meta has no such monopoly, illegal or otherwise, and that it helped Instagram and WhatsApp to become more successful apps than they would've been on their own. The trial is expected to run for eight weeks.

In the weeks leading up to the trial, Zuckerberg tried to appeal to President Trump to reach a settlement. A deal never materialized.

Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at meghan.bobrowsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 30, 2025 16:31 ET (20:31 GMT)

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