Meta to invest $600b in AI data centres in US in next three years

• It’s the right strategy to aggressively front-load capacity so we’re prepared for the most optimistic cases, Zuckerberg says.

Company’s capital expenditure forecast for next year points to “notably larger” outlays, highlighting major investments in building and expanding AI data centres.

Meta Platforms announced a massive $600 billion investment in US infrastructure and jobs over the next three years, a bold strategy aimed at powering the company’s growing artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions.

The investment, one of the largest ever pledged by a technology firm, will fund the construction of AI-dedicated data centres, job creation, and other critical infrastructure projects.

The social media and technology giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has increasingly prioritised AI development with the stated goal of achieving superintelligence — the point at which machines can outperform humans in almost all intellectual tasks.

“It’s the right strategy to aggressively front-load capacity so we’re prepared for the most optimistic cases,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts during Meta’s recent earnings call.

Expansive AI infrastructure push

The scale of Meta’s commitment came to light after Zuckerberg informed US President Donald Trump at a White House dinner in September that Meta would invest at least $600 billion in the US over the coming years.

The company’s capital expenditure forecast for next year points to “notably larger” outlays, highlighting major investments in building and expanding AI data centres.

Last month, Meta secured a $27 billion financing package from asset manager Blue Owl Capital to help fund its data centre in Louisiana, currently its largest project worldwide.

In October, Meta announced a separate $1.5 billion investment in a Texas data centre, marking the groundbreaking of its 29th such facility globally.

The company’s expansive AI infrastructure push comes as competition intensifies within the tech industry to provide the computational power needed for advanced machine learning models.

Notably, OpenAI — creator of ChatGPT — recently signed a $38 billion agreement to purchase cloud services from Amazon, illustrating the scale and stakes of the AI infrastructure arms race.