Meta's costs outgrew revenue; Samsung reported record memory profit and Qualcomm growth beyond handsets. The same demand does not land identically on balance sheets.
Meta's second-quarter revenue rose 28 percent year on year to $60.80 billion, while total costs increased 55 percent to $42.03 billion. Operating income fell 8 percent to $18.78 billion, and operating margin declined from 43 percent to 31 percent. The company spent $31.08 billion on capital expenditure during the quarter and reported $784 million in free cash flow.[1]
Samsung said second-quarter revenue rose 28 percent from the previous quarter to 171.5 trillion won and operating profit reached 89.5 trillion won; the memory-heavy Device Solutions division supplied 89.2 trillion won of that profit. Qualcomm reported $9.9 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue and said its combined automotive and internet-of-things lines grew 28 percent year on year. These figures come from the companies' own releases.[2], [3]
All three releases place AI infrastructure or software in their growth narratives, but their periods and businesses are not equivalent. At Meta, heavy capital spending and faster cost growth compress margin. Samsung is benefiting from limited memory capacity and server products, while Qualcomm is expanding beyond handsets. Strong AI demand is therefore not by itself a measure of how much investment has become revenue, profit or future capacity.[1], [2], [3]
