Mark Zuckerberg is ready to go all-in on artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, Meta reported its fourth-quarter earnings, and the numbers were so good that Wall Street didn’t even blink at the CEO’s plan to spend over $115 billion on AI this year.
The social media giant’s revenue grew by 24% compared to last year, mostly because the online ad business is still booming. This success sent Meta’s stock price up by 10% in after-hours trading. Investors seem happy to let Zuckerberg chase his AI dreams as long as the money keeps rolling in from Facebook and Instagram ads.
For 2026, Meta expects to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on new technology and infrastructure. That is nearly double what the company spent last year. Zuckerberg told analysts that the money will fund massive data centers to train new AI models and eventually deliver what he calls “personal super intelligence” to billions of people and businesses.
Meta’s finance chief, Susan Li, admitted that the company currently struggles to keep up with its own needs. In simple terms, Meta has more ideas than it has computers to run them. The demand for computing power across the company is growing faster than they can build new servers.
Zuckerberg is also making big moves to secure the best minds in the field. Last year, he spent over $14 billion to bring in Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and his team. This group is now reportedly testing a secret new model code-named “Avocado,” which is meant to be a much smarter successor to the company’s current Llama models.
Zuckerberg explained that Meta must build its own AI instead of relying on tools made by other companies. He wants to control the technology so Meta can help shape the future of how these products work. For now, Meta’s core advertising business is funding this entire mission. As long as those mobile ads keep exceeding expectations, Zuckerberg will have plenty of room to pursue his massive AI ambitions.
