What big tech earnings taught us—and didn’t—about tariffs

Tesla, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Apple have all reported earnings over the last two weeks, making Nvidia the only Mag Seven company left.

Heading into earnings season, the tariffs put in place by the Trump administration raised concerns that companies would increase their prices to offset the levies, leading to a pullback of consumer and enterprise spending—and a potential recession.

So far, the results have only told Wall Street that tech “companies are just as confused as everybody else,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Barron’s.

“Most of them are having a difficult time parsing out how tariffs will affect them, partially because it’s a moving target,” he added. “They don’t necessarily know how it’s all gonna end.”

Apple gave the clearest insights into how it could be impacted. CEO Tim Cook said on the earnings call Thursday that the company expects to take a $900 million hit from tariffs for the June quarter.

Meanwhile, Amazon, another massive consumer-facing brand, said it is closely monitoring the effect of tariffs, while doing “everything we can to keep our prices low for customers in a way that makes economic sense.”

Tesla withheld second-quarter guidance as the company measures the “impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains.”

The rest of the Mag Seven was mostly quiet on the topic, with Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft providing better-than-expected guidance with mentions of macro uncertainty.

One trend has emerged, however—a slowdown in ad spending. Alphabet and Meta are starting to see Asia-based advertisers pull back budgets since the Trump administration removed the de minimis exemption. That exemption previously allowed lower-cost imports to enter the U.S. without being subject to tariffs.

Chinese companies Shein and Temu—known for their low priced items—may not want to put as much money into advertising if consumers stop spending because of price increases.

But while advertising strength is now in question, software remains a haven for tech investors. Enterprises are still spending on artificial intelligence powered software meant to lower costs and increase productivity down the line.

“It’s pretty clear where the tariffs can be applied on real world goods. But, when it comes to services—and a lot of these big software companies are moving more towards software as a service—they’re not as exposed to tariffs,” Sosnick said.

For the most part, investors can breathe a sigh of relief that tech companies remain on solid ground. But as trade policy continues to evolve, it’s clear uncertainty will be sticking around.