Meta to Nearly Double AI Spending

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has signalled an aggressive expansion of the company’s AI ambitions.

The Facebook-owner is planning to nearly double its annual spending on AI infrastructure and projects, even as warnings mount about a potential bubble in the fast-growing sector.

The move underlines Meta’s belief that AI will reshape not only its products but also the wider economy, workplace structures, and competitive dynamics across the technology industry.

Ramping up investment despite industry caution

During a call with financial analysts on Wednesday (Jan. 28) to discuss Meta’s 2025 financial results, the company said it expects to spend as much as $135 billion this year, largely on infrastructure tied to AI. That figure is almost double the $72 billion the company spent on AI projects and related infrastructure last year.

Over the past three years, Meta has already poured roughly $140 billion into AI, as it seeks to keep pace with – and potentially outmanoeuvre – rivals such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, all of which have made AI a central pillar of their long-term strategies.

The announcement comes at a time when several prominent industry leaders have cautioned that enthusiasm for AI may be running ahead of its near-term commercial returns. Nevertheless, Meta appears willing to tolerate rising costs and pressure on margins in exchange for what it sees as a once-in-a-generation technological shift.

Zuckerberg’s vision for an AI-driven workplace

Zuckerberg framed the investment as a bet on fundamental change in how people work and how companies operate. Speaking on the call, he said he expects “2026 to be the year that AI dramatically changes the way we work.”

His comments suggest Meta sees AI not simply as a product feature, but as a productivity engine that could transform everything from software development to content moderation and advertising.

“We’re starting to see projects that used to take big teams now be accomplished by a single, very talented person,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta has been rolling out AI tools internally, particularly for software engineers, and Zuckerberg indicated that these systems are already reshaping performance expectations inside the company. As workers adopt these tools and become “significantly more productive,” he said there is “a big delta between the people who do it and do it well and the people who don’t.”

That gap, he implied, could increasingly define how organisations are structured in the future.

Financial pressure and investor reaction

The scale of Meta’s spending comes with clear financial consequences. The company’s latest results showed that expenses rose faster than revenues during the final three months of 2025, squeezing profit margins and raising questions about how long investors will tolerate elevated costs.

Despite those concerns, markets reacted positively in the short term. Meta shares rose around 6.5% in extended trading in New York following the announcement, suggesting investors were reassured by the company’s confidence in its long-term AI strategy.

Analysts noted that Meta’s vast advertising business continues to generate significant cash flow, giving it more flexibility than many competitors to absorb heavy capital expenditure.

Job cuts and automation concerns

Zuckerberg’s comments also appeared to hint at further job reductions, as AI increasingly substitutes for human labour in certain tasks. Already this year, Meta has laid off several hundred employees, primarily in its Reality Labs division, which focuses on the company’s metaverse ambitions, hardware products, and some AI initiatives.

While Zuckerberg did not explicitly announce new layoffs, his remarks underscored the disruptive potential of AI inside the company itself.

“What we were talking about is, I think it’s very hard for anyone exactly to predict what the shape of how organisations working is going to feel, but I just think the fact that agents are really starting to work now is quite profound,” he said.

Industry-wide fears of an AI bubble

Meta’s spending spree stands in contrast to growing unease elsewhere in the technology and finance sectors. Some executives fear that the rapid influx of capital into AI mirrors the excesses of the dotcom boom, which ended in a dramatic crash in 2000.

Chuck Robbins, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems, told the BBC that while AI could eventually become “bigger than the internet”, the current market is probably a bubble and that some companies “won’t make it.”

Similar concerns have been voiced by JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon, while Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has acknowledged there is some “irrationality” in the AI boom.

Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI helped ignite the current wave of enthusiasm, was even more direct. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes,” he said last year.

A high-stakes bet on the future

For Meta, the gamble is clear. By committing unprecedented sums to AI infrastructure now, the company is betting it can build capabilities that will define social media, digital advertising, and workplace productivity for the next decade.

If the technology delivers on its promise, Meta could emerge stronger and more efficient. If it does not, the company risks being left with massive costs and limited returns in an increasingly crowded AI marketplace.

China’s AI race is accelerating as Moonshot, Alibaba, Baidu, and others launch powerful new models, narrowing the gap with US rivals.

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