Meta quarterly profit climbs despite big cloud spending

Tech giant Meta on Wednesday reported quarterly profits that were well above expectations, brushing aside market worries that its heavy investments in cloud computing and artificial intelligence would hamper growth.The company reported a $16.6 billion profit in the first three months of the year on revenue of $42.3 billion, with business spending on ads remaining strong.

Shares in the social media giant — which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — rose more than four percent in after-market trades.

“We’ve had a strong start to an important year,…