• Mark Zuckerberg has been offering $100 million+ packages to lure AI talent from rivals.
• Some AI experts have rebuffed Zuck, citing loyalty to their company's mission.
• I know what my father-in-law would say about this. It includes the letters B and S.

Since my dad died, I've grown close to my father-in-law Bill. He has a mix of joy and realism I admire, and his advice tends to stick.

One of his favorites: "We're all prostitutes when it comes to work." He's from an older generation, so I'll swap in "sex workers" as the appropriate phrase here. What he means is that we work mainly for money.

That's been on my mind as the AI talent war heats up. Mark Zuckerberg has been offering $100 million-plus packages to lure AI researchers and engineers from frontier labs and Big Tech rivals. Some have refused, citing loyalty to their company's mission.

"They are trying to buy something that cannot be bought. And that is alignment with the mission," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said recently, noting his top talent has stayed despite Meta's offers. Staff at Thinking Machines Lab have also turned Zuck down, either over leadership concerns or mission loyalty, according to Wired.

My father-in-law would say a phrase that includes the letters B and S. According to the gospel of Bill, this is all about getting paid, as usual.

A Business Insider scoop backs this up: This week, Charles Rollet reported Zuck's recruiting drive has created tension among existing Meta AI experts, who resent newcomers getting higher pay in its new Superintelligence team. That's made some easier to poach. xAI has nabbed several, and Microsoft has a Meta talent wish list. On August 6, Laurens van der Maaten, a top Meta scientist, announced he was joining Anthropic.

Reacting on X, former Meta engineering director Erik Meijer wrote: "Every action has a reaction; the unintended side effects of creating a SI team," referring to the Superintelligence group. When asked for comment, he shared a YouTube clip of an experiment in which two monkeys performing the same task were given different rewards. The one that got a less tasty treat hurled it back and angrily shook its cage.

If we're all metaphorical monkeys or sex workers, what about the "mission-driven" folks staying put? One possible explanation: equity.

Many engineers and researchers get stock in their startups, and these awards typically vest over several years. If you're at a hot AI lab, your unvested equity has probably soared in value lately, or there's a chance it could.

For instance, Anthropic could be worth $170 billion soon, up from about $4 billion two years ago. If you got equity back then and you're waiting for it to vest, there's no way you're leaving right now.

No surprise: most folks are staying at Anthropic. Until that equity vests, anyway.

I want to hear back from AI experts who are getting big offers. Are you mission-driven and staying put, or will you take the $$$ like most of us monkeys? Let me know: [email protected].

And sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here.

• Companies such as Peloton, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, BlackRock, and UPS have trimmed staff this year.
• In some cases, artificial intelligence is reshaping workforces.
• See the list of companies letting workers go in 2025.

The list of companies laying off employees this year is growing.

Layoffs and other workforce reductions have continued in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts in tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy.

While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid technological change. A World Economic Forum survey found that some 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.

Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI. Though Amazon has not announced job cuts this year, CEO Andy Jassy told employees in June that the company will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today" in the coming years as it expands its use of generative AI and agents.

Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025 so far, in alphabetical order.

Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany.

Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

"To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers.

The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

"As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Automattic, Tumblr's parent, cuts 16% of staff

Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

"While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

BlackRock is cutting 1% of its workforce.

BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

Block to lay off nearly 1,000 workers

Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

Bloomberg is making cuts in an overhaul of its newsroom

Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

Blue Origin is laying off one-tenth of its workforce

Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

"We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

Boeing cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program

Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

"To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

BP slashed 7,700 staff and contractor positions worldwide

BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

"We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

Bridgewater cut about 90 staff

Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

Bumble said it intends to cut 30% of its workforce.

In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

"We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

Burberry says it plans on cutting 1,700 jobs

Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

Chevron is slashing up to 20% of its global head count

Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

"Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

CNN plans to cut 200 jobs

Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Coty is cutting about 700 jobs

Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

CrowdStrike is cutting about 500 jobs

CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, is cutting about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

It expects the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

Disney says it's laying off several hundred employees

Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs

Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

Geico has axed tens of thousands of workers

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

GrubHub announced 500 job cuts

Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

HPE is laying off 2,500 employees

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

"Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

Intel to cut at least 15% of its factory workers

Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

"Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

"This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

"We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

Kohl's is reducing about 10% of its roles

Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

"Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

Meta is cutting 5% of its workforce

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics were among the hardest hit.

In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

Microchip Technology is slashing 2,000 jobs

Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

Microsoft has made several rounds of cuts this year

Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

Morgan Stanley plans cuts for the end of March

Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

Nextdoor is slashing 12% of its staff

Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

Nissan says it will cut 20,000 jobs by 2027

Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

Oracle is reportedly cutting jobs from its cloud division.

Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Panasonic is cutting 10,000 jobs

Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

"Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

Paramount is cutting 3.5% of its US workforce

Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

Peloton is looking for $100 million in run-rate savings by next year

Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

"As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

Porsche is cutting 3,900 jobs over the next few years

Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

PwC is laying off approximately 2% of its US workforce

The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

Salesforce is cutting more than 1,000 jobs

Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

Scale AI is cutting 14% of its workforce

On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

Sonos cuts about 200 jobs

Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

Starbucks is laying off 1,100 corporate staff

Starbucks planned to notify 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off on February 25.

CEO Brian Niccol said in a memo that the layoffs will make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The layoffs won't affect employees at Starbucks stores, the company said.

Niccol told employees that layoffs were on the way in a separate memo in January. The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

Stripe laid off 300 employees

Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

UPS is cutting 20,000 jobs

UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

"With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

The Washington Post cut 4% of its non-newsroom workforce

The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

Wayfair laid off 340 tech employees

Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

"With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

Workday cut more than 8% of its workforce

Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

"The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?

Have a tip? Contact Dominick Reuter via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Key Points

• Taiwan Semiconductor's growth seems unstoppable as demand for AI chips surges.

• Upstart has beaten the market despite a huge selloff after the Q2 report.

• Meta's hard pivot into AI has drawn considerable investor interest.

• 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ›

Although many artificial intelligence (AI) stocks have performed well since "Liberation Day" on April 2, the rough start to the year has weighed on many of them. So severe was the drop in some stocks that many continue to lag the performance of the S&P 500 in 2025 despite dramatic recoveries.

Fortunately, a few have managed to outperform the index. Moreover, some even remain solid buys. Investors looking for AI stocks that can continue to perform should consider these names.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

Taiwan Semiconductor

In a sense, the performance of Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) may not come as a surprise. The company dominates advanced semiconductor manufacturing, as competitors such as Samsung and Intel failed to match its technical prowess.

Consequently, top chip design companies such as Nvidia and Apple outsource most manufacturing to TSMC, which holds a 68% market share in the third-party foundry market. Since such companies cannot run AI workloads without its chips, TSMC is one of the most essential companies in the AI industry.

So, it is little wonder that Grand View Research forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the AI chip industry of 29% through 2030. This means that doubts about the economy are much less likely to affect TSMC.

Indeed, one can find little that is sluggish about TSMC's performance. In the first half of 2025, it generated nearly $56 billion in revenue, a 40% increase from year-ago levels. Over the same period, costs and expenses rose 24%. Thus, its net income of almost $24 billion was 60% higher than in the first two quarters of 2024.

It sells at a P/E ratio of 28. That valuation is unlikely to deter investors, considering its rapid growth, and should translate into gains for TSMC stock over time.

Upstart Holdings

The fact that Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ: UPST) is a market beater so far in 2025 may come as a surprise. Its stock lost 19% of its value following Q2 earnings. Additionally, it had posted net losses for years before the current quarter. At one point in the 2022 bear market, it had even lost 97% of its value.

Nonetheless, Upstart is worth following, especially considering its ability to transform the credit scoring market. Fair Isaac's FICO score, the industry standard, has not had a major update since 1989.

In contrast, Upstart's model leverages AI to consider attributes overlooked by FICO. It trained its model on over 90 million data points and is working to increase its advantage in AI during the year. Such efforts have helped it uncover loan opportunities overlooked by FICO without adding to lender default risks.

Moreover, amid a sluggish economy, the Fed appears poised to lower interest rates, which should encourage more consumers to take out loans. So far, it mainly scores personal loans, but expanding into auto and home equity loans should significantly broaden its addressable market.

Due to a modest profit in Q2, Upstart has earned only $3.1 million this year. Still, revenue of $426 million in the first half of the year is up 59% yearly.

Also, recent losses temporarily left it without a price-to-earnings ratio. Still, considering its revenue growth, investors are likely to perceive its forward P/E ratio of 39 as reasonable, making it feasible for interested investors to cash in on this potentially lucrative opportunity.

Meta Platforms

Another company banking heavily on AI is social media giant Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Over 42% of the world's population uses at least one of its social media sites daily.

Amid such saturation, its user base growth slowed to 6%. Thus, to maintain rapid revenue growth over the long term, it leveraged its treasure trove of personal data to help clients train AI models.

In 2025 alone, it pledged between $66 billion and $72 billion in capital expenditure (capex) to compete in this space, investing heavily in technical improvements and data center capacity to maintain its leadership.

Additionally, digital advertising continues to drive growth for now. In the first two quarters of 2025, Meta generated $90 billion in revenue, 19% more than the same period last year. In comparison, costs and expenses grew 10% over the same time, allowing its $35 billion in profit for the first half of the year to rise by 36%.

Despite those increases, Meta's stock sells for around 28 times earnings. Considering its rapid growth and growing role in AI, that valuation should make Meta stock attractive to prospective shareholders.

Should you invest $1,000 in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now?

Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $653,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,119,863!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of August 11, 2025

Will Healy has positions in Intel and Upstart. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Intel, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Upstart. The Motley Fool recommends Fair Isaac and recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Points

• Quarterly Form 13Fs provide investors with an under-the-hood look at which stocks Wall Street's brightest asset managers have been buying and selling.

• In spite of their outperformance, shares of Nvidia and Palantir have been sent to the chopping block by billionaire fund managers.

• Meanwhile, one of Wall Street's most-influential businesses finds itself as the preferred artificial intelligence (AI) stock of multiple top-tier money managers.

• 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms ›

For the better part of the past three years, no trend has been a bigger headline-grabber on Wall Street than the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). Software and systems empowered with AI solutions have the ability to change the corporate growth arc in America and around the world, which is why the analysts at PwC peg this global opportunity at a jaw-dropping $15.7 trillion by 2030.

But as we know from previous next-big-thing technologies, not every company will be or remain a winner. What's been particularly noteworthy about the rise of AI is how Wall Street's preeminent billionaire money managers have approached this opportunity.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

Based on sheer performance, graphics processing unit (GPU) colossus Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AI-data mining specialist Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) have been unstoppable. Since 2023 began, shares of Nvidia and Palantir have skyrocketed by roughly 1,150% and 2,810%!

However, quarterly Form 13F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show these two AI leaders aren't as popular as you might believe with billionaire fund managers. Instead, another market-leading business stands tall as the undisputed favorite AI stock on Wall Street.

Most billionaire investors have cashed in their chips with Nvidia and Palantir

A 13F allows investors to track which stocks Wall Street's smartest fund managers have been buying and selling. Coincidentally, the deadline to file 13Fs for the June-ended quarter is tomorrow, Aug. 14.

Based on 13Fs from previous quarters, billionaires have spoken loudly with their actions. Both Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Family Office and Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital completely exited their respective stakes in Nvidia, while billionaires David Tepper of Appaloosa and Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management disposed of the bulk of their shares.

It's a similar story for Palantir, with Druckenmiller sending all of his fund's shares to the chopping block.

Although both companies have exhibited phenomenal sales and profit growth, there are a couple of well-defined reasons for billionaire fund managers to be skeptical.

Arguably the biggest worry with the AI revolution is that history will repeat itself. Including the rise and proliferation of the internet, there hasn't been a game-changing innovation in over three decades that's avoided an early innings bubble-bursting event. Without fail, investors consistently overestimate the early stage utility and consumer/enterprise adoption of new technologies, which eventually leads to lofty expectations not being met. If an AI bubble were to form and burst, it would be terrible news for Nvidia and Palantir.

The other historical overhang for Nvidia and Palantir is their respective premium valuations. Though Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio isn't egregiously high, its trailing-12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of more than 30 is in-line with other cutting-edge businesses that peaked during the dot-com era.

Palantir's premium is considerably higher than Nvidia's. Whereas most industry leaders top out at P/S ratios of 30 to 40, Palantir is tipping the scales at a P/S ratio of 137, as of the closing bell on Aug. 8. No megacap company has ever been able to sustain a premium of this magnitude, and Palantir, despite its irreplaceable Gotham and Foundry platforms, is unlikely to be the exception to this unwritten rule.

While billionaire fund managers have been content to reduce or remove Nvidia and Palantir stock from their portfolios, there's another industry-leading AI stock they're all in on.

Image source: Getty Images.

This is the undisputed favorite AI stock of billionaire money managers

Among the dozens upon dozens of companies making AI a cornerstone of their future growth plans, none has been more sought after by billionaire investors than Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). Based on 13Fs filed in mid-May for trading activity that concluded March 31, four billionaire asset managers listed Meta as their fund's top holding:

• Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management: 16.18% of invested assets.
• Terry Smith of Fundsmith: 10.19% of invested assets.
• Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management: 9.55% of invested assets.
• Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital: 8.75% of invested assets.

In addition to being the No. 1 holding for four prominent fund managers, it's the third largest position, excluding put and call options, for Israel Englander of Millennium Management, the No. 6 holding for Steven Cohen's Point72 Asset Management (also excluding options), and the 10th biggest holding for Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management. In other words, there's no doubt whatsoever that Meta Platforms is the clear favorite AI stock of billionaire investors.

The interesting quirk about Meta is that, for the moment, it's almost exclusively an advertising-driven company. Through the first six months of 2025, just shy of 98% of its $89.8 billion in sales traced back to advertising on the company's social media sites, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Facebook Messenger.

No social media company comes remotely close to the 3.48 billion daily active people Meta attracted to its family of apps in June. Businesses are willing to pay a premium to get their message(s) in front of users, and there's no better platform to do that with than Meta.

But advertising is also where artificial intelligence is laying its roots for Meta. Integrating generative AI solutions into its advertising platform is allowing businesses to tailor and create messages for specific users, with the ultimate goal of improving click-through rate. The fact that Meta Platforms absolutely blew Wall Street's consensus revenue forecast out of the water during the June-ended quarter is an indication that its investments in AI are paying off.

Looking a bit further down the line, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg aims to use AI as a tool to monetize the metaverse -- the 3D virtual world where users can interact with each other and their environment. Meta is positioning itself to be an on-ramp to the metaverse, and Zuckerberg has a lengthy track record of slow-stepping the monetization of new products and services until the time is right.

Another factor that's helping Meta succeed, and which may be coercing billionaire fund managers to pile in, is the company's enormous cash pile. It closed out the June quarter with a little over $47 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and is pacing nearly $100 billion in net cash generation from operating activities for the full year. A sizable treasure chest allows Meta to take risks that few other companies can afford to.

Lastly, Meta's valuation remains reasonable. Even though its forward P/E of 25.8 is 22% above its average forward P/E over the trailing-five-year period, Meta has consistently blown past consensus earnings estimates and looks to maintain an annual sales growth rate of 15% or greater for the foreseeable future.

Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now?

Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $653,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,119,863!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 11, 2025

Sean Williams has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

• Microsoft targets Meta employees in AI talent war, internal documents show.
• The software giant has an internal list of its most-wanted Meta engineers.
• Microsoft also has a new process, and special budgets, to make its AI job offers more competitive.

Microsoft is going after Meta's AI talent.

The software giant has compiled a list of its most-wanted Meta engineers and researchers, and is starting a new process intended to make offers more competitive, including a mandate to match Meta's compensation for top talent, according to insiders and internal documents viewed by Business Insider.

Microsoft recently reported blowout earnings, sending its market valuation toward $4 trillion, thanks in large part to excitement around generative AI. Microsoft needs to lure top AI engineers and researchers to keep that success going. The company has cut thousands of employees this year but has insisted its headcount will remain flat, suggesting significant hiring plans.

Matching Meta offers is no small feat. The social-media company has been making nine-figure offers for top AI talent. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said Meta is offering $100 million signing bonuses to his engineers, and Meta has recently hired AI researchers with pay packages as high as $250 million.

Microsoft documents viewed by Business Insider show the software company is making multimillion-dollar offers, and two people familiar with the process say multimillion-dollar on-hire bonuses for AI talent are becoming more common.

Microsoft AI, a team run by former Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, and CoreAI, another Microsoft group overseen by ex-Meta engineering boss Jay Parikh, have special recruiting teams to help with competitive offers, these people said. They asked not to be identified discussing sensitive, private matters.

Parikh's organizational chart, recently viewed by Business Insider, shows much of his roster includes executives with whom he overlapped at Meta.

A spreadsheet of Microsoft's most-wanted Meta employees lists individuals by name, location, and position, and includes tabs for teams and positions that Microsoft is targeting such as Reality Labs, GenAI Infrastructure and Meta AI Research. The spreadsheet is being shared among hiring managers on certain AI teams, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Microsoft has started a new process for competitive offers, asking recruiters to mark candidates as "critical AI talent," which gets the attention of higher-ups who respond with Microsoft's top offer within 24 hours.

Documents viewed by Business Insider show how that process works, such as providing "offer rationale" about the candidate's AI skills and experience, using a private "compensation modeler" to come up with a bespoke range for the candidate, and enlisting a compensation consultant.

The new process could help Microsoft compete with AI talent outside of its traditional pay ranges.

Business Insider recently published Microsoft's internal pay guidelines for engineers and researchers. The highest compensation package includes $408,000 in salary, $1.9 million in on-hire stock awards, nearly $1.5 million in annual stock awards, and annual cash bonuses as high as 90%.

Those documents included an important carve-out for competitive situations, such as cases involving top AI talent, where recruiters can seek approval for higher offers for exceptional candidates.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or Signal at +1-425-344-8242. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Key Points

• Nvidia's top-tier clients are investing huge amounts of money in AI development, and they're partnering with Nvidia.

• Several large tech stocks reported strong earnings last week.

• Nvidia reports at the end of the month and it tends to beat guidance.

• 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›

Last week was a busy one for tech followers. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) all reported second-quarter earnings, and while they were mostly positive in different ways, artificial intelligence (AI) continued to be a strong trend. That's great news for Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) investors. Let's see what's happening and why investors should get excited about what Nvidia will have to say when it reports quarterly earnings later this month.

Winning with AI

AI has become an enormous growth driver for tech companies, and really all kinds of companies. It unlocks productivity and aids in creativity in ways that make it essential if a company doesn't want to be left behind.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Amazon said that its AI business through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud division continues to grow at triple digits year over year, "with more demand than we have supplied for at the moment." It's launching all sorts of new features as demand grows and changes, and releasing powerful new tools aimed at developers creating large language models and in need of the highest-power AI chips. It also boasted that it rolled out new EC2 instances, a type of virtual server on the AWS cloud supported by new Nvidia Blackwell "super chips," the most powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) on AWS.

Image source: Getty Images.

Amazon spent $31.4 billion on capital expenditures, which it says is a reasonable estimate for the back half of the year. Although that could be in many parts of the business, it said the AI business is where most of it is going. That means it could be spending even more than the original $100 billion it said it would spend in 2025.

Microsoft boasted that its Azure cloud business is grabbing market share, up 34% year over year in the 2024 fiscal fourth quarter (ended June 30), and that it now has 400 data centers, the most of any other cloud business. Management highlighted that while there's industry talk about the first gigawatt or multi-gigawatt data centers, it launched two gigawatts of power in its data centers over the past 12 months, and it's scaling faster than the competition.

At Meta, CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed many exciting developments in AI, including the launch of Meta Superintelligence Labs, which combines all of the company's AI efforts, and progress on upgrades to its Llama LLMs. In April, Nvidia announced its own involvement in the new Llama developments. Zuckerberg said Meta is working on the next generation of products "that will push the frontier in the next
year or so." Meta has made headlines over the last few weeks as it crafts a team of AI specialists it's been pulling from rival companies.

Apple continues to disappoint, or at least confuse, investors with its AI developments. It's taking its time to develop an AI infrastructure that rivals the competition, and it's questionable whether or not it's losing ground or if it's going to eventually release something different and special, which is its signature. Management said it's making substantial investments in AI and that its capital expenditures are going to increase.

Although investors seemed disappointed in Apple's AI updates, there's no question that it provided an excellent report, beating expectations on the top and bottom lines, and it's likely to report progress in Apple Intelligence over the coming quarters.

Driving AI

The common denominator here is Nvidia, which partners with all of these companies. It provides the power for Amazon's and Microsoft's clientele to develop potent LLMs and AI agents, and they also use Nvidia GPUs for the data centers that drive their own LLMs. Meta uses Nvidia's GPUs for its own LLMs and AI agents, and Apple partners with Nvidia for its AI business as well.

Nvidia is guiding for sales to increase about 50% over last year in the fiscal second quarter, which it will report on Aug. 27. Its quarterly results usually beat guidance, but with the success and continued capital investments of its top-tier clients, it's very likely that it will beat sales guidance and give shareholders a strong outlook.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $653,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,119,863!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025

Jennifer Saibil has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Points

• One of the companies discussed in this article is using AI to win a bigger share of the lucrative digital advertising market.

• The other company in focus in this piece is enabling the AI revolution through its semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and it seems well-positioned to accelerate its growth.

• 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms ›

Artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to have a profound impact on the global economy in the long run by driving up productivity levels, spurring customers and businesses to spend money on AI-related applications. According to market research firm IDC, AI could account for 3.5%, or almost $20 trillion, of the global gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the decade.

This explains why investors have been betting big on AI stocks over the past three years, and that's why many of the names benefiting from the rapid adoption of this technology are now trading at expensive multiples. Hardware giants such as Nvidia and Broadcom sport rich earnings multiples, while software specialists such as Palantir and Snowflake are also expensive.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

However, if you have missed the AI-fueled rally in shares of the above-mentioned companies in the past year, it would be a good time to take a closer look at Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX). These companies are making the most of the global AI rollout, and importantly, they are trading at attractive multiples right now.

Let's look at the reasons why buying these two AI stocks right now could turn out to be a smart long-term move.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Meta Platforms

AI is turning out to be a nice catalyst for digital advertising giant Meta Platforms, which has been offering its AI-powered advertising tools to advertisers and brands to improve audience targeting and reduce costs simultaneously. On the company's latest earnings conference call, management pointed out that AI tools have led to a 5% jump in ad conversions on Instagram, along with a 3% improvement on Facebook.

Moreover, Meta's users are now spending more time on its apps thanks to AI-powered content recommendations. The time users spent on Facebook and Instagram increased by 5% and 6%, respectively, in the previous quarter. These factors explain why Meta reported a solid increase of 22%, to $47.5 billion, in its Q2 revenue. Its bottom-line growth was even better, with adjusted earnings per share jumping by 38% year over year to $7.14 per share.

The numbers crushed Wall Street's expectations, fueling a big jump in Meta's stock price following the release of its results on July 30. Meta benefited from a 9% year-over-year jump in the average price per ad served during the quarter. Also, the AI-driven improvement in user engagement led to an 11% increase in ad impressions delivered by the company in the previous quarter.

Additionally, more advertisers on Meta's platform are now using its generative AI ad tools to create and optimize the performance of their campaigns. Meta says that almost 2 million advertisers are now using its AI video generation tools, while the adoption of its text generation tools is also improving. Looking forward, Meta's AI ad tools are likely to be adopted by more advertisers, as the company reports they significantly boost advertising returns.

A study conducted by the company earlier this year revealed that its AI advertising tools are delivering a "22% improvement in return on ad spend for advertisers." It won't be surprising to see advertisers funneling those savings back into Meta's advertising solutions to reach a bigger audience, thereby leading to further growth in the social media giant's revenue and earnings.

As such, it is easy to see why analysts have increased their earnings growth expectations for Meta.

META EPS Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts. EPS = earnings per share.

The best part is that investors can buy this tech stock at an extremely attractive 27 times earnings, which is lower than the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 index's earnings multiple of almost 33. Buying Meta at this valuation looks like a no-brainer, as the company can gain a bigger share of the digital ad market thanks to the AI-powered gains it is delivering to advertisers.

2. Lam Research

Semiconductors are powering the AI revolution. Complex chip systems capable of tackling huge workloads are necessary to train and deploy AI models in data centers. This is why companies such as Nvidia, Broadcom, AMD, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) have seen healthy growth in their revenue and earnings in the past couple of years.

However, the chips that the companies mentioned above design and fabricate wouldn't have been possible without the semiconductor manufacturing equipment sold by the likes of Lam Research. The company sells wafer and fabrication equipment (WFE) to foundries such as TSMC and Intel and to memory manufacturers like Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix.

These companies have been increasing their capital expenditure budgets to make more AI-focused chips. Unsurprisingly, industry association SEMI is projecting a 6.2% increase in WFE spending in 2025, followed by a bigger jump of 10.2% in 2026. It is worth noting that SEMI increased its WFE spending guidance last month.

The good part is that Lam is already benefiting from the improved spending on semiconductor equipment. The company released its fiscal 2025 results on July 30. It reported a 23% year-over-year increase in annual revenue to $18.4 billion. Its diluted earnings per share increased at a faster pace of 43% to $4.15 per share last fiscal year.

The stronger WFE spending forecast going forward explains why Lam's outlook was a solid one. It is expecting $5.2 billion in revenue in the current quarter, which is well ahead of the $4.63 billion consensus estimate. That would translate into a year-over-year increase of 25% in its top line. Lam seems capable of sustaining this healthy momentum throughout the year on the back of an increase in AI-focused semiconductor capacity.

As such, don't be surprised to see Lam's revenue growth in the current fiscal year exceeding the 8% increase that analysts are projecting. The following chart tells us that Wall Street analysts expect Lam to clock healthy double-digit earnings growth rates. That looks reasonable, considering the 24% annual growth that the AI chip market is expected to clock over the next five years, which should ideally lead to more investments in semiconductor manufacturing capacity.

LRCX EPS Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts. EPS = earnings per share.

In the end, there is a possibility that Lam will grow at a stronger pace than Wall Street's expectations in the long run, and this should pave the way for more upside in this AI stock. With Lam trading at just 23 times trailing earnings, investors are getting a great deal on this stock right now, and they may not want to miss it, considering the AI-fueled gains it could deliver.

Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now?

Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,563!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,108,033!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025

Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Lam Research, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Snowflake, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Points

• Advertising is performing well for many companies.

• Chip demand is driving Taiwan Semiconductor's stock higher.

• 10 stocks we like better than Alphabet ›

Although the market is starting to get a bit pricey, I've got a list of a few stocks that would be wise to invest in right now. These companies are delivering impressive growth combined with reasonable prices, making them great stocks to buy now.

If you've got $50,000 ready to invest (or really any dollar amount, for that matter), taking a look at this cohort is a smart idea.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is one of the best values in the market right now. It is delivering consistent and strong growth, with revenue and diluted earnings per share (EPS) rising 14% and 22% in the second quarter, respectively.

Normally, that would cause a company like Alphabet to trade at a premium to the market, but that's not the case.

GOOG PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Alphabet trades at 19.7 times forward earnings, and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) trades for 23.8 times forward earnings. That's a significant discount to the broader market, and makes Alphabet an excellent stock to buy now before the market bids the stock up.

Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) delivered a knockout earnings report in Q2. Its revenue was up 22% year over year, despite it only guiding for 13% growth. It expects that strength to continue throughout Q3, with revenue growth expected to be about 20%.

While Meta is investing heavily in building out its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, its existing advertising business is thriving. Some of Meta's AI investments are starting to pay off, with AI ad creation becoming more popular and various AI initiatives driving increased interaction and conversion rates on its platforms.

Meta is more pricey than Alphabet at 27.6 times forward earnings, although it has earned that premium with its rapid growth. Meta is growing significantly faster than the market's long-term average (about 10%). It's not that much more expensive, which makes today's price reasonable.

Taiwan Semiconductor

The AI race wouldn't be possible without cutting-edge chip technology from Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM). Taiwan Semiconductor is a chip foundry and produces chips for big-time clients like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Essentially, if a company doesn't have chip production capabilities, it needs to find a supplier for its chip production. Taiwan Semiconductor has risen to become the top option in this field, and has the growth to show for it. In Q2, TSMC's revenue rose by 44% year over year in U.S. dollars. Despite its strong growth rate, Taiwan Semiconductor doesn't have a massive valuation like one may expect.

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

At 23.8 times forward earnings, it's priced nearly identically to the broader market.

With Taiwan Semiconductor growing at a rapid pace and expected to continue its strong growth for some time, combined with a reasonable price tag, it's an excellent stock to buy now.

Amazon

At first glance, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) looks a bit pricey for its growth and valuation. In Q2, Amazon's revenue increased by 13%, yet it's the most expensive stock on this list at 32.5 times forward earnings.

However, this is the wrong way to look at Amazon's stock. Amazon is an earnings growth story, not a revenue growth story.

AMZN Operating Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts.

Amazon's operating income has been growing at a far faster pace than revenue over the past few quarters. This rise is due to multiple factors, including increased efficiency. But the biggest driver has been from the rise of two segments: Amazon Web Services (AWS) and advertising. Both of these are much higher-margin businesses than the base commerce business Amazon is known for. Additionally, each is growing rapidly, with AWS' revenue rising 17% and advertising service revenue rising 23% in Q2.

This is a long-term trend that will continue for many years, and a patient investor will be well rewarded for sticking with Amazon's stock over the next few years. With the stock reacting negatively following Q2 results, now seems like an excellent time to scoop up shares.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,563!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,108,033!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

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*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025

Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Points

• The Vanguard Value ETF has a much lower valuation than the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.

• The Value ETF is a wealth compounder first and a passive income tool second.

• The ETF can be an effective tool for investors who don’t want to amplify their exposure to mega-cap growth stocks.

• 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Value ETF ›

The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has historically been a fantastic way to compound wealth -- generating annualized total returns of 9% to 10%. The proliferation of low-cost index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has made it easier than ever to invest in the S&P 500 without racking up high fees.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) -- one of the largest S&P 500 index funds by net assets -- has an expense ratio of just 0.03% -- or 3 cents for every $100 invested. When I first began investing, it was normal to see flat fees per stock trade of around $5 to $10. So fees and expense ratios are no longer a major drag on returns for investors who regularly pour their savings into equities.

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One issue with buying the S&P 500 is that it doesn't have a high yield. Today's top S&P 500 companies are growth stocks that have yields well below 1% or don't pay dividends at all -- a stark contrast to the days when the most valuable companies were oil and gas giants, industrials, or consumer staples behemoths with high yields.

As a result, the yield of the S&P 500 has fallen to just 1.2%. What's more, the valuation of the S&P 500 has gotten more expensive as stock prices have outpaced earnings growth.

Here's why investors looking to use passive income as a key way to achieve their financial goals may want to consider buying the Vanguard Value ETF (NYSEMKT: VTV) over the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.

Image source: Getty Images.

A lower yield at a better valuation

The Vanguard Value ETF sports an expense ratio of 0.04%, so it has just one cent more in annual fees per $100 invested than the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. It also offers a full percentage point higher in 30-day SEC yield at 2.2% compared to 1.2% for the S&P 500 ETF.

In addition to having a higher yield, the Value ETF sports a 19.6 price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio (as of June 30) and holds 335 stocks compared to a 27.2 P/E ratio (also as of June 30) and 505 holdings for the S&P 500 ETF.

The Value ETF's higher yield and significantly lower valuation may appeal to investors looking to avoid paying a premium for the top stocks that are leading the S&P 500.

A different cast of characters

The Value ETF's higher yield and lower valuation result from its composition.

Data source: Vanguard.

Aside from Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, there are no other companies that overlap the top 10 holdings in the Value ETF and S&P 500 ETF.

You'll also notice that the S&P 500 is much more top-heavy -- meaning that just a handful of names can move the index. Whereas the Value ETF is more balanced and not as dominated by just 10 companies.

Far more than a passive income vehicle

Over the last decade, the Value ETF has gone up 111.5% and has a total return of 173.5%. Meaning that capital gains have made up a much higher percentage of the total return than dividend income. The investment thesis centers around the companies it holds rather than being all about yield, a stark contrast to ETFs that prioritize passive income over upside potential.

The JP Morgan Nasdaq Equity Premium ETF (NASDAQ: JEPQ) sells covered call options on the Nasdaq-100 as a way to generate income -- which provides a sizable stream of monthly payouts while capping the upside potential of the Nasdaq-100 moving higher. The fund sports an 11.2% 30-day SEC yield (as of June 30), so it could be a great way for investors who are primarily focused on passive income. However, the Value ETF offers a way to get a higher yield than the S&P 500 without having any cap on upside potential.

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEMKT: SCHD) doesn't use call options to achieve its high 3.9% yield. But many of its holdings are arguably lesser quality companies than what you'll find in the Value ETF.

The Vanguard Value ETF remains a top fund to buy now

The Value ETF is a good buy if you already own many of the top growth stocks in the S&P 500 and are looking to diversify your portfolio into different companies and boost your passive income.

It's also a good option for investors who want to participate in the broader market and collect more passive income than the S&P 500.

While there are plenty of ETFs that offer higher yields than the Value ETF, I would argue that the quality of companies in the ETF makes it one of the best ways to consistently collect more passive income than the index.

Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Value ETF right now?

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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Daniel Foelber has positions in Nvidia and Procter & Gamble. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AbbVie, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, Tesla, Vanguard Index Funds-Vanguard Value ETF, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, and Walmart. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Johnson & Johnson and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

• This post originally appeared in Business Insider's Tech Memo newsletter.
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Is it just me, or does this summer feel super busy? New AI models are launching all the time. M&A dealmaking is unusually active. Funding rounds are getting done. How's your summer going? Let me know (if you have time!).

Agenda

• Apple is also getting busy, trying to catch up in AI. Which startups could it buy?

• This is one of the fastest ways to get a job offer from Meta.

• How to use a fascinating new version of ChatGPT.

Central story unit

Who's on Apple's AI shopping list?

If you're a Big Tech CEO, what's the worst way to spend a summer day? Attending a White House event as President Donald Trump rants about Jeffrey Epstein coverage while you stand there, waiting. That's gotta be up there.

I'm guessing Tim Cook had better things to do than go through this ordeal on Wednesday. He was there to stop Trump from crushing the iPhone with bigly tariffs. Much higher on his to-do list: getting Apple back in the AI game. An AI update to Siri is delayed, and the company has lost AI talent to rivals.

What happens when a huge, cash-rich company has its back against the wall? One common outcome is a flashy, strategic acquisition. These deals make a statement, and (if they work) they can catapult a company into new sectors or technologies by quickly amassing talent and intellectual property, along with new users and customers.

On a recent call with analysts, Cook dropped a major hint that this is what Apple might do in AI. "We're very open to M&A that accelerates our road map. We are not stuck on a certain size company," he said.

Apple's biggest acquisition was $3 billion, so I took Cook's "size" comment as a particularly strong hint that the company could go large here.

So, which AI startups could be on Apple's shopping list? Ben Bergman, Rebecca Torrence, and I spent this week asking bankers, venture capitalists, and analysts which M&A targets might make sense. Check out the full list below, but one that came up several times was Thinking Machines Lab, a startup run by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

"It would be game-changing for Apple to partner with an independent, leading AI lab like Thinking Machines," said Sarah Guo, a leading venture capitalist who's backed many startups in the field, including Murati's company. "They have massive threats and opportunities across the Apple experience."

Radically improving Siri experiences with Apple's mobile data, using memory and personalization, is a huge opportunity, even if Siri has failed to keep up with the breakneck pace of AI capabilities to date, Guo noted, while stressing that Apple should partner with Thinking Machines, rather than buy the startup.

You know what they say in Silicon Valley, though. Partnerships can be a prelude to a deal.

READ MORE

News++

Other BI tech stories that caught my eye:

• Exclusive: Sorry, Microsoft employees: Your WFH days are numbered.
• The only CEO who seems to care about the internet's future.
• Exclusive: xAI has hired 14 Meta employees this year as the AI talent war rages on
• OpenAI launched GPT-5 on Thursday. Here's what it can do.
• How to get a job at Meta: Post about getting an offer from OpenAI.
• Why Silicon Valley went nuts after Lina Khan's victory lap over Figma's IPO.

Eval time

My take on who's up and down, including updates on tech jobs and compensation.

UP: You know who really knows how to take a victory lap? Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Shares of the defense tech company surged this week after it smashed through Wall Street expectations. The stock is up almost 600% in the past year.

DOWN: Airbnb slumped this week after issuing guidance that disappointed Wall Street. This stock has lost at least 15% since Brian Chesky took the company public in late 2020. So much for "Founder Mode."

TECH JOB UPDATE:

In BCG's 2025 "AI at Work" survey, employees and managers showed a significant divide in how generative AI is integrated into their work. While 85% of leaders and 78% of managers use GenAI regularly, only 51% of frontline employees reported similar use.

Concerns about job displacement due to AI remain high. However, this also differs depending on seniority. Forty-three percent of managers and leaders in BCG's survey expect their jobs will certainly or probably disappear in the next decade. For frontline workers, that number was notably lower at 36%, BCG found.

From the group chat

Other Big Tech stories I found on the interwebs:

• OpenAI just gave out juicy bonuses to fend off recruiters (The Information)
• OpenAI can probably afford it. The startup could be worth $500 billion in the secondary market (Bloomberg)
• AI labs use everyone else's data without permission, but they get grumpy when it happens to them (Wired)
• Uber under-reported sexual assault and misconduct complaints (The New York Times)
• Elon's big, new pay day (NYT)

AI playground

This is the space where I try an AI tool, or sometimes feature reader experiences. What should I do, or use, next week? Let me know.

This week, I chatted to BI reporter Katherine Li, who's been trying out Study Mode, a new version of ChatGPT for education.

Q: What were the main differences between Study Mode and the main ChatGPT tool?

Study Mode felt more proactive and conversational. When I asked if I should buy a car and briefly described my life, it introduced the concept of "being car poor" without me asking. Regular ChatGPT doesn't do that. Study Mode also gave concise bullet points instead of big paragraphs, which made things clearer and left less room for error. It also asked how I felt about the topic, not just practical things like budget or commute. For example, it asked if I'd feel anxious without a car or if I'd miss my family. When I mentioned my Uber and grocery spending, it offered a "budgeting exercise," like a thought experiment. Traditional ChatGPT would just crunch numbers if you gave it a figure.

Q: What tasks is Study Mode good for, versus the main ChatGPT?

Regular ChatGPT is fine for tasks like summarizing transcripts or proofreading a cover letter. But Study Mode shines when you want a complicated subject explained clearly, with relevant new concepts, pros and cons, and exploratory thinking. It doesn't give you a final product; it helps you create your own.

Q: Is Study Mode better for student learning?

Definitely. It explains concepts deeply and visually. Some charts reminded me of my old IB economics textbook. It balances ideal advice (like saving 20% of income) with realistic data (most Americans save 8% or less). It also has features like quizzes I haven't tried yet, which could be great for learning Spanish or exam prep. But it's no substitute for a human teacher's emotional connection.

Q: Any tips for Tech Memo readers using Study Mode?

Be open-ended. Don't just ask for facts — ask why something works, what alternatives exist, or how designs function. Like a good classroom, it's about curiosity.

User feedback

I love hearing from readers. What do you want to see more of, or less of?

Specifically, though: This week, I want to hear back about how work has interrupted your summer chillin' plans. The most gruesome stories = the best. Let me know: [email protected]

Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at [email protected].

It’s only been a couple of days since the Instagram Map launched, and from the looks of our social feeds, people are not happy about it.

Responses have ranged from being mildly annoyed that Instagram is ripping off Snapchat’s Snap Maps instead of offering a default feed that only contains your friends’ posts, to high alert outrage about possibly privacy implications and doxing, as well as how domestic violence victims or others could be put at risk of stalking via the app.

Meta says the feature is an “opt-in” only way to share your active location with the friends you choose, or a way to browse the content friends and creators are posting, organized by the locations tagged to their posts and Reels.

How to turn your location off on the Instagram Map

If the only thing you want to do is turn Instagram Maps location sharing off, here’s Instagram’s instructions on how to make sure the feature is disabled within the app (on both Android and iOS):

• Tap Messages in the top right of Feed.
• Tap Map at the top of your inbox.
• Tap Settings in the top right and select “no one”
• Tap Update at the bottom to save your changes.

If you haven’t enabled location access for Instagram, Meta says that the map feature is disabled by default, and you won’t be able to access the settings since it doesn’t have access to that data.

Why are you seeing people on your Instagram Map who haven’t enabled the feature or opted in?

According to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, people are seeing location-tagged posts and Reels that are also included in the map UI, and assuming that indicates a live-tracked location.

“Your last reel is showing up on the map, not your current location. Your live location is not being shared, and it will never be unless you decide to share it,” writes Mosseri. In another post, he promised, “We’ll get out a few design improvements as quickly as possible,” potentially by next week.

Key Points

• Meta's advertising platform is increasing in strength.

• Management's Q3 revenue guidance was far above what Wall Street was expecting.

• These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires ›

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) rose over 11% on July 31 thanks to the incredible results that it posted during the second quarter. Meta also delivered some shocking news that helped propel the stock higher, as its expected growth is far greater than anyone predicted.

But after a large jump in a short time frame, is the stock still worth buying?

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Image source: Getty Images.

Q2's growth far exceeded management's expectations

Meta Platforms is better known for the social media platforms that it owns: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The key part of these apps is the advertising revenue that they generate. In Q2, advertising generated $46.6 billion in revenue for Meta. Companywide, Meta generated $47.5 billion.

That's nearly all of Meta's revenue, so it's clear that as long as advertising remains strong, Meta will remain strong. In Q2, ad revenue rose 22% year over year. Because the revenue makes up a large chunk of Meta's total, this 22% growth rate is equal to its overall growth rate. The big kicker here is that Meta was only expecting 13% revenue growth at the midpoint for Q2.

Q2 clearly exceeded all expectations for growth, which is one of the reasons why the stock responded so positively; the other reason was the outlook.

Meta expects to sustain this growth through at least the next quarter

Looking ahead to Q3, Wall Street analysts expected Meta to forecast $46.2 billion in revenue. However, management completely blew that expectation away, guiding for revenue between $47.5 billion and $50 billion. That indicates 20% growth at the midpoint, which shows that this rapid growth is expected to persist.

That's an incredible outlook for Meta and shows that the company isn't just succeeding, it's knocking it out of the park. However, the 11% jump following Q2 earnings may concern investors that all of this success has been pulled forward. So, is Meta a solid buy now?

Meta's stock isn't the cheapest around

After the one-day jump, Meta trades at 28 times earnings.

META PE Ratio data by YCharts

Besides the decline Meta experienced alongside the broader market in April, this is pretty much in line with where the stock has traded at since 2024. As a result, investors shouldn't be overly concerned with the price that they're paying. Furthermore, the S&P 500 index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) trades at 24.9 times trailing earnings, which isn't that much cheaper than Meta (although still historically expensive).

With Meta's impressive growth rate and dominant business model, I'm confident that Meta can still deliver market-beating growth moving forward. The Wall Street analyst community was bearish on Meta's stock heading into earnings, as its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was identical to its trailing P/E ratio, indicating no earnings growth over the next year.

However, Meta delivered 38% diluted earnings per share (EPS) growth in Q2, so this argument has been completely upended. This could cause a wave of analyst upgrades coming in the next few weeks, which could drive Meta's stock even higher.

The price for Meta's stock is fair, and with excellent growth ahead of it, I still think it's a top stock to buy in the market today.

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When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,026%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500.

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See the stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025

Keithen Drury has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Key Points

• Based on the stock’s performance in the past few days, the market was disappointed with Amazon’s latest financial update.

• The company’s overall revenue growth accelerated from Q1, and management plans to spend more on capital expenditures this year.

• Investors can take advantage of the latest dip to add a top business to their portfolios.

• These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires ›

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) just reported financial results for the three-month period that ended June 30 (second-quarter 2025). Judging by the fact that the share price was down nearly 10% (as of Aug. 4) from the day of the announcement on July 31, the market clearly hasn't been happy with the update that management provided.

Revenue totaled $167.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share coming in at $1.68. These two headline figures were ahead of Wall Street's expectations. It wasn't even close. However, the leadership team's guidance was for operating income to be $18 billion (at the midpoint) for the third quarter, well below analysts' $19.5 billion forecast.

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It's important that investors are keeping up with Amazon's most recent financial performance. But these things should be viewed with the bigger picture in mind. Is this "Magnificent Seven" stock a smart long-term buy?

Image source: Getty Images.

Growth is picking up

During Q2, Amazon's top line grew at a 13.3% year-over-year rate. This was an acceleration compared to the first quarter, which is obviously an encouraging sign. What's remarkable is that the business is expanding at a strong clip, despite collecting a massive $670 billion in net sales in the last 12 months. Even at its current size, growth is still a part of the Amazon story.

The North America segment posted an 11% revenue gain. This was the fastest expansion rate since Q1 2024. The company had its biggest Prime Day ever. It also expanded same-day and next-day delivery in the U.S.

Amazon's digital advertising segment deserves some attention. Revenue soared 22% to $15.7 billion. This is becoming a more important money-maker for the company. Amazon is behind only Meta Platforms and Alphabet when it comes to digital ad sales.

Investors who believed that Amazon's growth engine was slowing got a pleasant surprise. Perhaps the business still has many years left of double-digit revenue gains as we look ahead.

Is AWS losing its luster?

The most exciting part of Amazon has nothing to do with online shopping or digital advertising. Instead, it's Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform with industry-leading market share, that investors seem to focus on the most. The latest financial update might have given shareholders a reason to be cautious.

AWS registered 17.5% year-over-year revenue growth to $30.9 billion. That number was slightly ahead of analyst estimates. However, it's worth pointing out that the two biggest rivals, Microsoft Azure and Alphabet's Google Cloud, are both growing at much faster rates. This means that AWS is losing market share.

What's more, AWS' operating income increased by just 9.7%, lower than the revenue gain, as expenses crept up. But CEO Andy Jassy remains very confident on the opportunity AWS has.

"I say this frequently, but remember that 85 to 90% of worldwide IT spend is still on premises versus in the cloud," he pointed out on the Q2 2025 earnings call.

There will also continue to be robust demand from customers looking to use the expanding set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

For what it's worth, investors must get comfortable with the amount of spending happening, as Amazon could undertake almost $120 billion in capital expenditures just this year. If the business didn't do this, then it would risk falling behind in the AI race.

Buy the dip

As of Aug. 4, shares of Amazon trade 13% below their peak from February. I view this dip as a smart buying opportunity. Investors have the chance right now to add one of the world's top companies to their portfolios at a time when the market is pessimistic about the latest financial results. Over the long term, this business will remain a dominant tech leader, even though the numbers each quarter could vary substantially. I still think patient investors should be rewarded.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,026%* — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500.

They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025

Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.