Among the “Magnificent Seven” big U.S. tech stocks, the first companies to report earnings saw sharply different reactions. Meta Platforms and Tesla rose in after-hours trading following their results, while Microsoft fell.
On Tuesday, Microsoft closed up 0.22% on the New York Stock Exchange, Tesla gained 0.13% and Meta slipped 0.63%. After the earnings releases, moves diverged. As of 7:58 p.m. in South Korea, Meta was up 8.39% in after-hours trading and Tesla was up 1.66%, while Microsoft was down 4.70%.
Meta’s after-hours jump followed results that beat expectations and a strong revenue outlook. Meta said fourth-quarter (October-December) revenue rose 24% from a year earlier to $59.89 billion, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $58.59 billion.
Earnings per share were $8.88, above the $8.23 estimate. Advertising revenue, which makes up most of total revenue, rose 24% to $58.137 billion. For the full year, revenue increased 22% to $200.097 billion.
Meta also reaffirmed aggressive investment in artificial intelligence. It forecast 2026 capital expenditures of $115 billion to $135 billion, above the market estimate of $110.6 billion.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “In 2025, we delivered strong business performance,” and added that in 2026 the company aims to advance “personalized superintelligence for people around the world.” He said Meta plans to unveil its latest AI model in the coming months and release new models throughout the year.
Microsoft’s results also beat expectations, but concerns about growth and investment weighed on the stock in after-hours trading. Microsoft said fiscal 2025 second-quarter (October-December 2025) revenue rose 17% from a year earlier to $81.27 billion, above the LSEG estimate of $80.27 billion. It reported EPS of $5.16, well above the $3.92 estimate.
Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said Microsoft Cloud revenue topped $50 billion for the quarter, reflecting strong demand across its services portfolio, and said revenue, operating income and EPS all exceeded expectations.
By segment, Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 29% to $32.9 billion, above the StreetAccount analyst estimate of $32.4 billion. Operating income increased 21% to $38.3 billion, and EPS was $4.14, above the $3.97 estimate.
Even so, the stock was down more than 5% in after-hours trading. The Wall Street Journal said investors pointed to capital spending, including data centers, of $37.5 billion, above market expectations.
Tesla also rose after its earnings release. In its 2025 fourth-quarter report, Tesla said revenue was $24.9 billion and EPS was $0.50, beating the LSEG Wall Street consensus of $24.79 billion in revenue and $0.45 in EPS.
Tesla also said it signed an agreement on Jan. 16 to invest $2 billion in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI.
The company said it is building products and services that bring AI into the “physical world,” and that the xAI investment and term sheet are intended to strengthen Tesla’s ability to develop and deploy AI products and services at scale.
Tesla said revenue fell 3% from a year earlier and EPS declined 17%. For the full year, revenue fell 3% to $94.8 billion, and automotive revenue dropped 10% to $69.5 billion.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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