Luis von Ahn, CEO and cofounder of Duolingo (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Duolingo dives on Q3 user growth miss, uninspiring guidance

Duolingo has run into stiff headwinds this year.

11/5/25 4:38PM

Duolingo reported Q3 earnings after the close on Wednesday.

The language-learning app posted:

Q3 adjusted EBITDA of $80 million vs. Wall Street expectations for $71.2 million.
Q3 sales of $271.1 million vs. estimates for $260.3 million.
Daily active users of 50.5 million vs. expectations for 51.1 million.
Full-year sales guidance of between $1.028 billion and $1.032 billion vs. expectations for $1.018 billion.

The company’s net income benefited from a one-time tax-related gain of $223 million, which pushed its earnings per share to $5.95. That was far in excess of expectations for $0.76 a share, but not particularly informative.

Duolingo has struggled to regain the market momentum it started the year with. The stock was up nearly 70% for the year by May, before a company memo posted on LinkedIn about Duolingo’s AI-first strategy, which laid out plans to replace some outside contractors with AI, provoked a social media backlash.

The stock began to sputter amid signs that user activity was slowing. Shares got a brief respite after Duolingo posted a strong earnings report for Q2, but the sell-off soon resumed. Through the end of the daily session on Wednesday, the stock was down nearly 20% for the year and at its lowest level of 2025.

From Wall Street’s perspective, the epicenter of concern seems to surround Duolingo’s ability to recover its former growth in daily active users, a key measure of user engagement.

Luke Kawa

4 charts that show the speculative boom is back on

We’re so back.

BRITAIN-LONDON-FIREWORKS-NEW YEAR-CELEBRATION

The Future of the AI boom is coming into view

GE Vernova and Vertiv are giving us a glimpse into the future of the AI boom

GEV’s backlogs are bursting at the seams. One analyst told us he thinks that by the end of this year, GEV could be completely sold out of production capacity for heavy-duty turbines until 2029 or 2030.

Matt Phillips2h

Max Knoblauch2h

Low-cost airlines plunge on report Trump administration is close to $500 million rescue deal for Spirit

Low-budget US airlines are sinking on Wednesday morning following a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration is close to making a rescue deal for Spirit Airlines, which is said to be nearing liquidation amid high fuel costs.

Shares of Frontier, Allegiant, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines all dropped notably.

Per the WSJ, the US government could soon loan Spirit up to $500 million in return for warrants to take a sizable stake in the airline, which has filed for bankruptcy twice since late 2024. Those warrants could give the US government the ability to purchase as much as 90% ownership of Spirit, Bloomberg reports. The carrier has made efforts to emerge from its latest bankruptcy, filed in August, but fuel costs amid the war in Iran have upset the math.

On Tuesday, President Trump told CNBC he would “love somebody to buy Spirit.”

Exclusive | Trump Administration Nearing Rescue Deal for Spirit Airlines

On Tuesday, President Trump told CNBC he would “love somebody to buy Spirit.”

Max Knoblauch6h

Boeing reports better-than-expected Q1 earnings, revenue

Plane maker Boeing reported its first-quarter earnings before the market opened on Wednesday. Its shares climbed more than 3% in premarket trading.

For Q1, Boeing reported:

An adjusted loss of $0.20 per share, compared to the loss of $0.68 per share expected by Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet.
Revenue of $22.22 billion, compared to estimates of $21.85 billion.

Boeing reported -$1.45 billion in free cash flow in Q1, compared to the -$2.34 billion expected by Wall Street. Prior to Wednesday, Boeing had reported two consecutive quarters of positive FCF following six straight quarters of negative results. The company is still guiding for full-year FCF of between $1 billion and $3 billion.

Earlier this month, Boeing announced it had delivered 143 commercial jets in Q1, up 10% from the same period last year and ahead of rival Airbus, which delivered 114. This was Boeing’s first time outdelivering Airbus since 2018.

Matt Phillips6h

GE Vernova, top AI energy play, rises after Q1 report

GE Vernova, a maker of power plant equipment that’s seen orders tied to data centers surge, rose early Wednesday after posting strong Q1 results and lifting full-year sales guidance. The GE spin-off reported:

Adjusted EBITDA of $896 million vs. the $772 million estimate from analysts polled by FactSet.
Total revenue of $9.34 billion vs. the $9.25 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by FactSet.
Full-year 2026 sales guidance that was lifted to between $44.5 billion and $45.5 billion from prior guidance of between $44 billion and $45 billion, vs. the consensus estimate of $44.64 billion.

“In the quarter, our electrification segment booked $2.4 billion in equipment orders to support data centers, more than all of last year,” said CEO Scott Strazik.

GE Vernova is up some 600% over the last two years through Tuesday’s close, but the majority of those gains were booked by August 2025. After being largely range-bound for months, the stock busted out following the company’s last earnings report, lifting the shares up nearly 50% in 2026.