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Mark Zuckerberg spent all of 2024 telling investors that artificial intelligence would be key to the future of his company, Meta. In 2025, he plans to put his money where his mouth is.
On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg said the company expected its capital expenditures in 2025 to come in at an estimated $60 to $65 billion, a big increase compared with the roughly $38 to $40 billion Meta spent in 2024.
Much of that amount will go building and expanding data centers, the warehouse-size buildings that provide the computing power that fuels Meta’s A.I. products and algorithms across its apps, which include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
“This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a post to his Facebook page.
He noted that the company also expected to own more than 1.3 million graphics processing units, or GPUs, by the end of the year. A GPU is a type of computer chip that excels in the type of computing power required for A.I. systems.
And despite many layoffs and cutbacks to the company’s work force over the past three years, Mr. Zuckerberg said that he planned to continue hiring “significantly” to grow the teams responsible for working on A.I. and related products.
Meta’s share price rose about 1 percent on Friday.
Silicon Valley’s tech giants are locked in an infrastructure arms race, as they compete to build the future of artificial intelligence.
On Tuesday, President Trump announced a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle called Stargate, which aims to invest at least $100 billion in U.S. data centers.
Mr. Trump has promised to accelerate the production of American-made A.I. to compete against China for global leadership in the technology. On Thursday, he signed an executive order aimed at “removing barriers” to the development of A.I. in the United States.
Meta’s announcement on Friday could be viewed as “a response to the Stargate announcement earlier this week to remind investors of its leading position in A.I.,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a research note. Meta is scheduled to report its latest earnings next week, when details like capital expenditure plans are typically announced to investors.
Mr. Zuckerberg has said he plans to keep spending heavily on the infrastructure to support what he believes will be the future of computing, powered by A.I. chatbots and other programs.
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