Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced plans to invest up to $65 billion in artificial intelligence in 2025. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that part of this investment will go towards building a new data center.
According to Zuckerberg, this data center will be large enough to cover a significant area of Manhattan. The company also plans to enable about a gigawatt of computing power and end the year with more than 1.3 million graphics processing units (GPUs). Zuckerberg emphasized that this investment will be crucial to spur innovation and strengthen America’s technological leadership.
Meta does not want to lose its position in the artificial intelligence race
Meta recently invested US$10 billion in a data center in Louisiana and purchased new chips for its AI products. Zuckerberg’s announcement comes at a time of intense competition in the sector, especially following the launch of the Stargate project, a $100 billion joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle aimed at developing artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
Meta’s shares fluctuated after the announcement. Although there was a decline at the beginning, it increased by 1.5 percent in the following period. Analysts predicted that the company will spend $ 51.3 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, according to Bloomberg’s estimates. Zuckerberg also noted that Meta is expanding its AI teams and that the company has enough capital to continue investing in the coming years.
On the other hand, the competition between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman intensified after the Stargate announcement. Musk questioned the ability of the companies involved to fulfill their financial promises, while Altman argued that the project was beneficial to the country.