Zuckerberg says Meta is increasing AI spending to $65 billion in 2025
Meta Platforms chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the social network is planning to invest about $60 billion to $65 billion in AI infrastructure as the company pursues AI-led growth. The capital expenditure is above Wall Street estimates of about $50 billion.
Investing in AI Infrastructure
In the announcement, the Meta boss described 2025 as “a defining year for AI.” He said the initiative would also see Meta develop a 2-gigawatt data center that “would cover a significant part of Manhattan” to power its AI offerings.
Additionally, according to Zuckerberg, under its proposed plans for 2025, the company will bring on 1 gigawatt in computing and close the year with more than 1.3 billion graphics processing units. “And over the coming years, it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership.”
Meta's Role in the AI Race
Zuckerberg’s announcement comes a few days after President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank will form a venture known as Stargate and invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure across the US.
Meta has become a significant player in the AI race. The company has an AI chatbot, its Ray-Ban smart glasses, and an open-source approach which has set it apart from competitors in the industry. Meta allows its consumers and businesses to access and use its Llama AI models for free.
The company expects its AI assistant, which is already available across its services to serve over a billion people in 2025, an increase from about 600 million monthly active users it had in 2025.
Market Competition and Future Investments
Earlier this month Microsoft indicated it was planning to invest about $80 billion in 2025 to develop data centers. Amazon also announced this year it would spend more than $75 billion in 2024.
During a call with investors in April, Zuckerberg indicated that he expected to see “a multiyear investment cycle” before the company’s AI products will scale into profitable services. He also pointed out that Meta has a strong track record in that department. The company’s shares went down 16% at that time. Meta still generates a significant chunk of its revenue from digital advertising.
Future Outlook
On Friday, Zuckerberg revealed that he expects the company’s Meta AI digital assistant to become the “leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people.” According to CNBC, the company is also developing an AI engineer that will contribute “increasing amounts of code to our R&D efforts,” added Zuckerberg.
“We have the capital to continue investing in the years ahead,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. Meta is expected to release its fourth-quarter financial results on January 29.
