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Meta
Last week, tech behemoths Meta, Alphabet and Amazon unveiled their latest quarterly earnings, revealing robust digital ad sales.
Meta’s third-quarter revenue skyrocketed 26% year-over-year (YoY) to $51.2 billion (all figures US), fueled primarily by online ads, which accounted for 98% of its sales. This marks the company’s strongest YoY sales growth since the first quarter of 2024.
The company saw a 14% YoY increase in ad impressions across its family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp), and a 10% rise in the average price per ad. Daily active users averaged 3.54 billion in September 2025, up 8% from the previous year.
Its headcount also grew 8% YoY, reaching 78,450 employees by September 30.
Meta updated its financial outlook, now projecting full-year total expenses of $116 billion to $118 billion, up from the previous range of $114 billion to $118 billion. It also increased its 2025 capital expenditure forecast from a range of $70 billion to $72 billion, up from $66 billion to $72 billion. For Q4, it expects revenue to fall between $56 billion and $59 billion.
The full-year outlook, the company said, reflects an expectation for continued strong ad revenue growth, partially offset by lower YoY Reality Labs revenue in the fourth quarter.
Amazon
Amazon’s online ad sales surged 24% YoY to $17.7 billion, contributing to the company’s $180 billion in total revenue. For its ad division, Amazon highlighted deals with SiriusXM, which allows advertisers buy ads across all SiriusXM properties and media types programmatically through Amazon’s demand-side platform. The recent agreement with Spotify also boosted revenue in the segment.
Net sales for the third quarter reached $180.2 billion, up 13% from $158.9 billion in the same period last year. The company’s North America segment saw an 11% increase in sales to $106.3 billion, while international sales rose 14% YoY to $40.9 billion. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business sales surged 20% YoY to $33 billion.
Operating income for Q3 was $17.4 billion, consistent with Q3 2024. However, this figure includes two sizable charges: a $2.5 billion legal settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to allegations of deceptive practices and difficulty in canceling subscriptions, as well as $1.8 billion in estimated severance costs due to planned role eliminations. Excluding these costs, operating income would have reached $21.7 billion, according to the company.
The North America segment’s operating income was $4.8 billion, down from $5.7 billion in Q3 2024.
Google owner Alphabet also saw significant ad revenue growth, with total ad sales reaching $74.18 billion, a 13% increase from $65.85 billion in the same period last year.
The YoY increase was driven in large part by YouTube’s ad revenue, which was up 15% in Q3 and 13% in Q2. YouTube’s online revenue jumped 15% to $10.26 billion.
Overall, the company’s revenue jumped 16% to $102.3 billion, driving a 33% surge in net income to $35 billion.
Google Cloud continued to be a growth driver for Alphabet, with revenue surging 34% to $15.2 billion, exceeding estimates of $14.72 billion.
The performance, the company said, was fueled by robust demand for AI-powered infrastructure and data analytics services. Google Cloud revenue made up about 15% of total revenue in Q3.
