Meta Invests Hundreds of Billions in AI Data Centers, Shares Rise 1%

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a significant investment plan, revealing that the company will channel hundreds of billions of dollars into constructing multiple massive AI data centers. This ambitious move is part of Meta's strategy to build cutting-edge infrastructure that supports superintelligent AI, positioning the company at the forefront of machine-driven innovation. The first of these multigigawatt data centers is expected to come online by 2026, with the inaugural facility named Prometheus. A second site, Hyperion, is planned to scale up to around five gigawatts of power over the coming years, highlighting the sheer magnitude of the project.

Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta is on track to be the first lab to bring an AI supercluster exceeding a gigawatt online, which, if realized as planned, would mark a major milestone in large-scale machine learning infrastructure. This feat could potentially set a new benchmark for competitors in the AI race. To address investor concerns about the immense spending, Zuckerberg pointed to Meta's robust advertising revenue, which he believes is sufficient to carry the burden of this project.

Meta's strategy seems to be paying off, as the company's shares ticked up about 1% following the announcement, building on a gain of over 20% so far this year. Last year, Meta generated nearly $165 billion in revenue, providing a substantial war chest for its AI ambitions. In April, Meta raised its projected capital expenditure for 2025 to between $64 billion and $72 billion, demonstrating its commitment to outpacing rivals like OpenAI and Google.

In response to some setbacks with its open-source Llama 4 model and the departure of key staff, Meta recently reorganized its AI efforts under a new division called Superintelligence Labs. This unit will be headed by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, following Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale. Beyond raw computing power, Meta is banking on fresh revenue streams from its Meta AI app, image-to-video advertising tools, and upcoming smart glasses.

Zuckerberg has been personally spearheading an aggressive recruitment drive, scouting top engineers to join the Superintelligence Labs, with an initial target of a 50-member team. With heavyweights like Wang and Friedman on board, Meta hopes to cement its position at the vanguard of AI, even if the payoff is still some ways off. As the company moves ahead with its titan clusters and new lab division, all eyes will be on whether these super-scale data centers truly usher in a new era of machine intelligence, or if they simply raise the stakes in an already fierce technological arms race.