Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Snapchat’s CEO for France Gregory Gazagne (Joel Saget/Getty Images)

Price check

Snap’s ad revenue isn’t growing as fast as its peers

An ad price snafu was partly to blame.

8/6/25 7:57AM

Snap’s stock plunged after narrowly missing earnings expectations yesterday. One reason investors are disappointed: ad revenue growth was a lot slower than the company’s tech and social media peers — even those like Meta, whose ad revenue is about 40x the size.

Shares are trading down over 20% in early trading on Wednesday.

Snap ad revenue grew just 4% in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier — less than it the 9% it grew in the previous quarter. The company partly blamed an ad pricing snafu for the slowed growth.

“Unfortunately, in our efforts to improve advertiser performance, we shipped a change that caused some campaigns to clear the auction at substantially reduced prices,” the company wrote in its investor letter. “We have since reverted this change and advertising revenue growth has improved as advertisers adjust their bid strategies to achieve their objectives.”

During the earnings call, the company’s CFO, Derek Andersen, also pointed to the timing of Ramadan, “which was less of a benefit in Q2 than in the prior year,” as well as the end of the de minimis exemption.

Like pretty much every other tech company, Snap is hoping its investments in AI will help it make more money on ads, which are responsible for the lion’s share of its revenue.

Here’s CEO Evan Spiegel on the earnings call:

“Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to further enhance return on advertising spend by deepening our investments in AI and machine learning, delivering innovative ad formats across the entire funnel, and enhancing the tools and insights that help our advertising partners optimize their campaigns. These ongoing efforts are aimed at ensuring Snapchat remains a high-performing and increasingly automated platform for all of our advertising partners.”

But so far it’s having trouble keeping up with everyone else.

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Ives raises Apple price target to Wall Street high of $310, citing a “real upgrade cycle” for iPhones

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives raised his Apple price target to $310 from $270 thanks to “early strong demand signs” for the iPhone 17, which he says is tracking 10% to 15% ahead of the iPhone 16 at this point.

That $310 price target is the highest among Wall Street analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Ives said the Street’s estimate of about 230 million iPhone unit sales for Apple’s upcoming fiscal year is conservative and instead thinks the company is on track to sell 240 million to 250 million units in FY26. Ives wrote:

“The combination of a pent-up consumer upgrade cycle with our estimates of 315 million of 1.5 billion iPhones globally not upgrading their iPhones in the last 4 years, coupled with some design changes/enhancements have been the magical formula out of the gates.”

Sherwood News reported last week that redesigned iPhone models, which went on sale Friday, are seeing more interest than they have in three years — a phenomenon we speculate might have less to do with the iPhone itself and more to do with a natural upgrade cycle, as the rush of phones purchased in 2020 and 2021 become obsolete.

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Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are among the US tech companies most affected by Trump’s $100,000 H-1B fee

President Trump’s proclamation on Friday charging a new $100,000 fee for high-skilled tech visas has sent the country’s biggest tech companies scrambling. Firms warned their H-1B workers not to travel outside the US and are weighing what the steep cost could mean for future hiring, given their heavy reliance on the program to bring in top talent.

Data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services shows the top beneficiaries of H-1B visas this year include Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Google.

So far, the leaders of these tech companies, many of whom recently attended a White House dinner praising the president, have been mum on the new fee, except for Netflix’s Reed Hastings. He wrote on X that he considers it a “great solution.”

“It will mean H1-B is used just for very high-value jobs, which will mean no lottery needed, and more certainty for those jobs,” he said. Netflix is not among the top 100 beneficiaries of H-1B visas this year.

Jon Keegan9/19/25

OpenAI reportedly poaching key Apple designers, using Apple manufacturing partners for AI gadgets

New details are emerging about the mysterious AI gadgets being designed by former Apple design chief Jony Ive since OpenAI purchased his startup “io” in May.

According to a report by The Information, Ive’s team has recruited several key Apple design and hardware employees to work on the gadgets. The Information reported some details of the devices:

“One of the products OpenAI has talked to suppliers about making resembles a smart speaker without a display, the people said. OpenAI has also considered building glasses, a digital voice recorder and a wearable pin, and is targeting late 2026 or early 2027 for the release of its first devices, one of the people said.”

OpenAI is also turning to Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partners to build the products, having signed contracts with Luxshare, and has been in talks with Goertek, per the report.

OpenAI Raids Apple for Hardware Talent, Manufacturing Partners

“One of the products OpenAI has talked to suppliers about making resembles a smart speaker without a display, the people said. OpenAI has also considered building glasses, a digital voice recorder and a wearable pin, and is targeting late 2026 or early 2027 for the release of its first devices, one of the people said.”

OpenAI is also turning to Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partners to build the products, having signed contracts with Luxshare, and has been in talks with Goertek, per the report.

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