CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to ramp up his company's spending on artificial intelligence in 2026. Wall Street seems fine with that plan.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Meta beat on the top and bottom lines while also revealing that its AI-related capital expenditures this year will be between $115 billion and $135 billion. That's nearly twice the amount Meta spent on capex last year, when the company revamped its AI unit.
Although investors have previously expressed concern about Meta's AI spending spree, they took comfort in the company's latest results, which showed 24% year-over-year revenue growth, driven by online ads. Meta shares, which trailed the market last year, popped as much as 10% in after-hours trading.
"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 during the earnings call.
Zuckerberg was referring to Meta's ambitious data center buildouts intended to anchor both current and future AI projects.
