Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down on artificial intelligence in 2026, with plans to spend up to $135 billion on AI-related initiatives — nearly twice what the company invested in 2025. The announcement came as part of Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings report, which exceeded Wall Street expectations on both revenue and profit.
Despite previous concerns about Meta’s AI spending spree, investors were reassured by the company’s results, which showed 24% year-over-year growth, fueled primarily by its online advertising business. Following the earnings report, Meta shares jumped as much as 10% in after-hours trading.
During the earnings call, Zuckerberg highlighted that the massive investment in AI infrastructure is central to his vision of building “personal super intelligence” for billions of people and businesses worldwide. He emphasized that Meta’s ambitious data center expansion is designed to support both current AI projects and future innovation.
“As we plan for the future, we will continue to invest very significantly in infrastructure to train leading models and deliver personal super intelligence to billions of people and businesses around the world,” Zuckerberg told analysts.
Meta CFO Susan Li noted that the company remains “capacity constrained,” with demand for computing power outpacing supply. This limitation affects both the company’s ad business and its AI research efforts. “Our teams have done a great job ramping up our infrastructure through the course of 2025, but demands for compute resources across the company have increased even faster than our supply,” Li said.
Zuckerberg signaled that 2026 will be a major year for Meta’s AI efforts. While the company has not disclosed specific revenue-generating AI products, he confirmed that multiple new initiatives are in the works. “I mean, we’re going to roll out new products over the course of the year,” he said. “I think the important thing is, we’re not just launching one thing, and we’re building a lot of things.”
One of Meta’s biggest AI moves in 2025 was a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, which brought founder Alexandr Wang and top engineers to Meta. Wang now leads the company’s TBD AI unit, which is testing a new frontier model code-named Avocado, intended to succeed the Llama family of models. Zuckerberg indicated that the early models will demonstrate the company’s trajectory in AI, with improvements and new releases expected throughout the year.
Asked why Meta needs to develop its own AI foundation models rather than relying on others, Zuckerberg stressed the importance of control. “We’re a deep technology company,” he said. “We can’t be constrained to what others in the ecosystem are building. Controlling a model allows us to help shape the future of these products.”
Despite the growing focus on AI, online advertising remains Meta’s financial backbone. Mobile ad revenue continues to exceed expectations, generating billions of dollars in cash flow each quarter. As long as advertising dominates Meta’s revenue, Zuckerberg is likely to maintain the freedom to pursue his ambitious AI vision.
In summary, Meta is betting big on artificial intelligence, expanding infrastructure, and developing proprietary AI models while maintaining a strong online ad business. Zuckerberg’s bold investments signal that the company is positioning itself to be a major player in the AI space, potentially reshaping not just social media but the broader technology landscape.
