Meta boroughs into expansion plans with $100B+ AI spending on Manhattan-sized data centers

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on artificial intelligence development and construct a data center nearly the size of Manhattan. The massive investment positions Meta to compete aggressively in the race toward artificial general intelligence while leveraging its profitable advertising business to fund the ambitious AI expansion.

What you should know: Meta is building multiple “titan clusters” of unprecedented scale to support its AI ambitions.

• The first multi-gigawatt data center, called Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026.
• A second facility, Hyperion, will scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years.
• “Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan,” Zuckerberg said.
• According to industry publication SemiAnalysis, Meta is on track to be the first AI lab to bring a gigawatt-plus supercluster online.

The big picture: Meta has reorganized its AI efforts under a new division called Superintelligence Labs following setbacks with its open-source Llama 4 model and key staff departures.

• The company generated nearly $165 billion in revenue last year, providing the capital foundation for this massive AI investment.
• Meta raised its 2025 capital expenditure predictions to between $64 billion and $72 billion in April.
• The company is betting the new division will generate cashflows from the Meta AI app, image-to-video ad tools, and smart glasses.

Why this matters: Meta is investing aggressively because AI has already proven its value to the company’s core business model.

• DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria noted that AI technology has boosted Meta’s ad business by allowing it to sell more ads at higher prices.
• “We have the capital from our business to do this,” Zuckerberg said, addressing investor concerns about whether the massive spending will pay off.
• The investment aims to bolster Meta’s position against rivals OpenAI and Google in the race toward “super-intelligence” or “artificial general intelligence.”

Who else is involved: Meta has launched an aggressive talent acquisition campaign to staff its AI division.

• The Superintelligence Labs will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman.
• Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale as part of its AI strategy.
• The company has offered multimillion-dollar pay packages to AI researchers, with some deals reaching as high as $100 million.
• Zuckerberg has personally led recent talent raids targeting top AI researchers.