Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Friday that the company is set to construct a large-scale data center in Louisiana to support its upcoming AI model, Llama 4, which is slated for release this year. In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg announced that Meta plans to invest over $60 billion in AI initiatives, including the construction of the data center, which he described as being “so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan. ” He stated, “This will be a defining year for AI. By 2025, I anticipate that Meta AI will emerge as the leading assistant, catering to over 1 billion users. Llama 4 is expected to be the preeminent state-of-the-art model, and we will develop an AI engineer that will significantly contribute to our R&D efforts through increased coding. ” This initiative represents a considerable increase in Meta’s capital expenditures, which were estimated to be around $38 billion to $40 billion in 2024, according to Susan Li, Meta’s CFO. Zuckerberg reassured that, despite these substantial investments, the company is “well-positioned to continue investing in the coming years. ” The announcement coincides with a notable rise in AI investments, highlighted by President Donald Trump’s recent introduction of Project Stargate— a joint venture in AI infrastructure involving OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank— which could potentially gather up to $500 billion in investments over the next four years. This project has garnered attention from other prominent tech leaders, including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who responded to an X post regarding the initiative by suggesting that “they don’t actually have the money, ” sparking a dispute with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. AI technology remains a focal point for numerous tech firms as the popularity of AI models from organizations such as OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic continues to grow.

Nvidia, known for its graphics processing units (GPUs)— the specialized chips essential for AI model training— achieved one of the highest market capitalizations in 2024, currently valued at around $3. 6 trillion. Additionally, Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at propelling AI technology advancements in the U. S. The order seeks to eliminate policies that hinder “American AI innovation” and promote the development of “AI systems free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas. ” In his announcement on Friday, Zuckerberg reiterated his expectation that “Meta AI will serve over 1 billion people as the leading assistant” and that “Llama 4 will set the standard as the preeminent model. ” With the addition of the new data center, he projected that Meta would end the year with over 1. 3 million GPUs. Last January, Zuckerberg mentioned that Meta planned to acquire 350, 000 H100 graphics cards from Nvidia, a substantial deal worth billions of dollars.