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America’s tech giants aren’t showing signs of slowing AI spending plans despite a stretch of economic uncertainty that has meant tough times for technology shares.
After Meta Platforms (META) late Wednesday reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, touting its advertising revenue growth, the social media giant said it plans to boost its capital expenditures this year to $64 billion to $72 billion to grow its AI capacity.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on a conference call that he believes the opportunities for the company in AI are “staggering.” Meta is boosting its planned investments both to add capacity this year and to prepare for coming years, he said.
The move comes after Meta said in January that it planned to spend $60 billion to $65 billion in capital expenditures this year, up from $39 billion in 2024, as the tech giant doubles down on the emerging tech.
Several of Meta’s Magnificent Seven peers, including Microsoft (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), have made similar announcements.
Alphabet told investors in February it would spend $75 billion in capital expenditures this year, while Microsoft projected $80 billion on infrastructure in fiscal 2025. In its earnings call Wednesday, Microsoft said it would maintain its spending outlook, as did Alphabet last week.
Meta earlier this week released its first Meta AI standalone app, allowing users to interact with Meta AI in a dedicated app, similar to the ChatGPT app. “We’ve got a lot more exciting work in the pipeline that I’m looking forward to sharing soon,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta shares rose over 5% in after-hours trading. The stock was down 6% for the year so far through Wednesday’s close.
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