Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD) executives highlighted a year of record revenue, continued profitability, and a slate of AI-driven product initiatives while acknowledging persistent budget pressure in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and automotive advertising during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call.
Q4 and full-year results, with political spend affecting comparisons
CEO and co-founder Jeff Green said the fourth quarter was “a solid quarter,” noting revenue grew about 19% year-over-year in Q4 2025 when excluding political spend tied to the prior year’s U.S. elections. On an absolute basis, revenue grew 14% year-over-year in the quarter, he said.
Davis said Q4 operating expenses were $590 million, up 8% from a year earlier, and operating expenses excluding stock-based compensation were $478 million, up 15%. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $400 million, or about 47% of revenue. Q4 net income was $187 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, and adjusted net income was $284 million, or $0.59 per diluted share.
Cash flow remained positive in the quarter, with net cash provided by operating activities of $312 million and free cash flow of $282 million. The company ended Q4 with about $1.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and reported no debt. Davis said The Trade Desk repurchased $423 million of Class A common stock in Q4 and announced an additional authorization that brings total share repurchase authorization to $500 million, inclusive of remaining amounts under the existing plan.
Vertical and regional trends: CPG and auto softness, international strength
Green described 2025 as strong for several categories, including technology, travel, pharmaceuticals, and communications, but said some large CPG companies and global auto companies were a consistent weak spot. He said the two verticals together represent more than a quarter of the company’s business and have faced elevated uncertainty driven by factors such as inflation, tariffs, and cost-of-living pressures.
In the Q&A, Green said the company’s Q1 guidance reflects “prudence” from both auto and CPG, and added that if those categories had performed in line with others, The Trade Desk’s growth rate would have been at least five percentage points higher. He emphasized that management views the pressures as macro-driven rather than indicative of reduced long-term opportunity and said the company’s dialogues with brands in these categories remain strong.
By geography, Davis said the U.S. represented about 84% of Q4 revenue and international markets about 16%, with international growth continuing to outpace North America. She pointed to momentum in EMEA and APAC, attributing it to multi-year investments in those regions.
From a channel perspective, Davis said video, including CTV, represented about 50% of the business in Q4; mobile was around 30%; display was in the low double digits; and audio was about 6%. Audio grew year-over-year faster than any other channel in Q4, she said. Davis also said CTV grew faster than the overall business throughout 2025 and in Q4 despite lapping political CTV spend.
AI roadmap and new products: Koa AI, Audience Unlimited, and Deal Desk
Green devoted a significant portion of his remarks to AI, arguing that AI represents a “generational shift” and that The Trade Desk’s objectivity—because it does not own inventory—positions it to benefit. He said nearly 100% of clients are running through Koa AI and described it as an AI-enhanced platform that supports decisioning, identity probabilities, impression valuation, forecasting, clearing price prediction, fraud detection, creative generation, and supply path optimization, among other functions.
Green also introduced “Audience Unlimited,” describing it as a major innovation aimed at addressing underutilization of third-party and retail data. He said the data marketplace has been “anemic” in part due to a lack of price discovery and that Audience Unlimited uses a flat cost structure designed to enable broader use of relevant data segments, with AI used to surface the right segment at the right moment. Green said the feature is optional and early adopters are seeing “very positive results.”
On retail media, Green said spend on the platform influenced by retail data reached record levels in 2025 and that the company has built what it described as the world’s largest retail data marketplace. He said the retailers in the marketplace represent more than half of global retail sales and that most retail partners are sending data via UID2. Green cited campaign examples, including Cheerios in the U.K. using retail data and Koa AI, and said Nestlé plans to activate retail data across future campaigns, including audio.
Green also highlighted “Deal Desk,” a product intended to centralize how buyers create, manage, and analyze deals, using AI to forecast expected performance relative to the open market. He said early results show Deal Desk-managed deals performing “meaningfully better” than those managed via legacy approaches, and noted that Deal Desk is rolling out globally, including integrations announced by two large SSPs in Germany.
CTV buying shifts and supply chain efficiency, including OpenPath
On CTV market structure, Green said the shift toward “true biddable CTV” continues to accelerate, particularly in live sports and premium episodic content. In response to questions about deal types, he said more sophisticated brands are moving toward biddable, decisioned buying while still seeking deal frameworks that provide assurances or economic advantages without giving up buy-side decisioning.
Green also addressed OpenPath following a question about trade press concerns. He described OpenPath as an effort to create a more efficient supply chain by connecting as directly as possible to publishers and charging a 4.5% fee, which he said is intended to be near break-even and “slightly profitable.” Green argued OpenPath is designed to improve supply chain efficiency and transparency, and said criticism can come from players that benefit from less efficient supply chains.
2026 outlook, investment priorities, and organizational changes
For Q1, Davis guided to revenue of at least $678 million, representing 10% year-over-year growth, and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million. She said the company is taking a prudent approach given lower visibility in CPG and, to a lesser extent, auto, partially offset by strength in medical health, technology, business and finance, and EMEA/APAC.
On profitability and spending, Davis said the company plans to continue investing while maintaining cost discipline, with headcount growth expected to remain below revenue growth. She said full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be approximately in line with 2025. In the Q&A, Davis characterized Q1 EBITDA dynamics as “primarily a timing thing,” and said incremental investments include infrastructure and talent, including completing a transition to owned data centers and strengthening AI and machine learning capabilities.
Green said the company has reorganized its go-to-market model around a brand-first, integrated coverage approach, eliminating overlapping coverage between advertiser and agency teams and increasing direct relationships with advertisers. He said joint business plans (JBPs) accounted for “well over half” of the business exiting 2025 and that the JBP pipeline more than doubled over the past year.
In discussing competition, Green said he does not view competitive pressure as materially higher, arguing The Trade Desk operates differently from competitors that sell owned and operated inventory. He reiterated that the company aims to be the best and biggest DSP, not the only one, and emphasized objectivity and trust as key differentiators in an AI-driven environment.
About Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD)
The Trade Desk, Inc (NASDAQ: TTD) is a technology company that provides a demand-side platform (DSP) for programmatic digital advertising. Its platform enables advertisers, agencies and other buyers to plan, purchase and measure ad inventory across digital channels, including display, video, mobile, audio, native and connected TV. By centralizing real‑time bidding, audience targeting and inventory access, the company aims to help clients optimize media spend and reach audiences at scale across publishers and ad exchanges.
Founded in 2009 by Jeff Green and Dave Pickles, The Trade Desk grew from a focus on programmatic display into a global ad‑tech provider.
