Apple will release its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday after market close, marking a critical update for investors watching whether the company can regain growth momentum amid rising tariffs and intensifying competition in artificial intelligence.

The quarter, which ran through the end of September, includes just over a week of sales from Apple’s new iPhone 17 lineup. Early indications point to stronger-than-expected demand, particularly for the entry-level and Pro versions of the device. Analysts and investors are listening closely for comments from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh on how the new models are performing across key markets, including the U.S. and China.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast that fiscal 2025 could be Apple’s first year of iPhone sales growth since 2022, signaling renewed consumer interest after several muted product cycles. For the September quarter, Wall Street expects Apple to post earnings per share of $1.77 on revenue of $102.24 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

However, the company’s financial outlook is being shaped by broader macroeconomic pressures, including tariffs under the Trump administration. While Apple has drawn praise from President Donald Trump for pledging to invest $600 billion in U.S. operations and boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, the tariffs remain a costly challenge. In July, Apple projected up to $1.1 billion in tariff-related expenses, and investors will be watching to see whether actual costs were lower than anticipated. Analysts are also looking for updated projections for the current quarter as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to affect the global supply chain.

Last week, Apple announced that it had begun shipping artificial intelligence servers from its Houston factory, signaling a more active role in the AI and data center space. This comes after years of investor frustration that Apple has lagged behind peers such as Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia in making large-scale AI infrastructure investments. Cook previously said the company was “significantly” increasing its investment in AI technologies, and analysts expect this to show up in Apple’s capital expenditure figures for the quarter.

Some investors are urging the company to accelerate spending in AI and cloud infrastructure to secure its long-term competitiveness. Analysts note that Apple’s traditionally conservative capital deployment strategy contrasts with rivals pouring tens of billions of dollars into generative AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

Beyond hardware and AI, Apple is also expanding its media and entertainment footprint. Cook is expected to tout the company’s new five-year agreement with Formula 1 to broadcast races in the U.S. on Apple TV—a major step in Apple’s sports streaming strategy. The move strengthens Apple TV’s portfolio following deals for Major League Soccer and other live sports events.

In the previous quarter, Apple delivered 10% year-over-year revenue growth, underlining resilience in its core businesses. For the December quarter, LSEG consensus forecasts suggest Apple could post $132.31 billion in revenue and $2.53 in earnings per share.

The focus now, as investors brace for Thursday’s results, is on whether Apple can sustain its growth trajectory while managing tariff headwinds and proving it can compete in the AI race that is reshaping the global tech industry.

Meta Platforms suffered its sharpest one-day stock decline since October 2022, tumbling more than 11% on Thursday, after investors balked at the company’s surging artificial intelligence expenditures even as it reported robust third-quarter results.

The selloff came after Meta raised its 2025 capital expenditures forecast to between $70 billion and $72 billion, from an earlier range of $66 billion to $72 billion, signaling a further ramp-up in spending on AI infrastructure and data centers. The move places Meta’s investment trajectory among the most aggressive in Silicon Valley, as the company races to secure its place in the global AI arms race alongside Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia.

During Wednesday’s earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg staunchly defended the company’s strategy, saying the early benefits of AI integration are already visible across Meta’s platforms.

“It’s pretty early, but I think we’re seeing the returns in the core business,” Zuckerberg said. “That’s giving us a lot of confidence that we should be investing a lot more, and we want to make sure that we’re not underinvesting.”

Zuckerberg said Meta is “aggressively” preparing for the next phase of AI, including the development of what he described as superintelligence—AI systems that far surpass current models in reasoning and autonomy. He argued that Meta’s early and large-scale investments would ensure it remains “ideally positioned for a generational paradigm shift in many large opportunities.”

The company’s AI ambitions span several fronts. Meta is developing custom AI chips to power its large language models and recommendation systems, building vast data center networks to handle growing workloads, and expanding its open-weight model strategy to encourage wider adoption of AI tools across developers.

However, analysts say the spending surge highlights the growing tension between Meta’s long-term vision and short-term investor expectations. While AI is widely seen as the future of computing, many investors worry that Meta’s payoff horizon remains distant and that ballooning costs could weigh on profitability in the coming quarters.

Meta’s rivals are taking similar routes. On Wednesday, Alphabet lifted its capex guidance to between $91 billion and $93 billion, while Microsoft forecast another fiscal year of high spending growth, underscoring the enormous cost of maintaining AI leadership. Yet investors have treated Meta more harshly, partly because its AI monetization strategy—through ads, social media engagement, and messaging tools—is less defined than the enterprise-focused offerings of its peers.

Meta’s heavy AI push includes a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, a startup specializing in training data, and the creation of Superintelligence Labs, led by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. The lab is tasked with developing next-generation models that could power Meta’s AI assistants and creator tools across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that AI will be at the heart of Meta’s long-term transformation. The company is rolling out AI chatbots, image-generation tools, and digital assistants across its platforms, aiming to boost engagement and advertising revenue.

Despite the stock market’s reaction, Meta’s third-quarter performance beat expectations. The company reported adjusted earnings of $7.25 per share on $51.24 billion in revenue, topping Wall Street estimates. Revenue jumped 26% year-over-year, marking one of its strongest growth rates in recent years, fueled by a rebound in digital advertising and improved monetization of its Reels and WhatsApp Business products.

Meta also absorbed a $15.93 billion tax charge linked to President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping fiscal policy overhaul that altered corporate tax deductions and foreign income repatriation rules.

Even with the one-time charge, Meta maintained healthy margins and reported strong user engagement across its family of apps. Daily active users on Facebook surpassed 2.2 billion, while Instagram and WhatsApp continued to expand globally.

Still, the selloff reflects deeper market uncertainty about whether Meta’s vast AI spending will translate into tangible profit. Some investors fear that the company’s strategy could mirror its earlier costly pivot to the metaverse — a project that has yet to produce meaningful financial returns despite billions in investment.

Meta’s Reality Labs division, which houses its virtual and augmented reality projects, posted another quarterly operating loss exceeding $3.7 billion, underscoring the challenge of balancing innovation with investor patience.

Zuckerberg, however, maintains that both AI and immersive technologies will converge over time. “AI will be the foundation of everything we build,” he said earlier this month, adding that it will eventually power Meta’s metaverse ambitions.

With the company now valued above $1.5 trillion, Meta remains one of the world’s most influential technology firms. But as the competition for AI dominance intensifies, its path forward is expected to be determined by how soon its colossal bets begin to show tangible returns — not just in user growth, but in profits.