Meta Platforms, the tech titan behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is diving headfirst into the artificial intelligence race with a jaw-dropping investment of “hundreds of billions of dollars” to build cutting-edge AI data superclusters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday. The first of these behemoth computing networks, dubbed Prometheus, is slated to power up in 2026, marking a bold step toward Meta’s vision of achieving artificial superintelligence.
Zuckerberg, in a spirited post on Threads, described the ambitious project: “We’re building multiple multi-gigawatt clusters, with Prometheus leading the charge and Hyperion set to scale up to 5 gigawatts over the coming years.” He added that one of these “titan clusters” could cover a footprint rivaling a chunk of Manhattan, a scale that dwarfs current industry standards. According to industry outlet SemiAnalysis, Meta is on track to be the first to bring a 1-gigawatt-plus supercluster online, capable of powering roughly 800,000 homes for a year.
The push comes after a wake-up call for Meta, which saw its open-source Llama 4 AI models receive a tepid response from developers in April. “The real jolt came when we lost our edge in open-weight models to DeepSeek,” Zuckerberg admitted, signaling a shift into what he calls “Founder Mode.” To reclaim Meta’s AI dominance, he’s spearheading the newly formed Meta Superintelligence Labs, a powerhouse team led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman. With $14.3 billion poured into Scale AI, Meta’s AI division aims to develop cutting-edge AI for its essential products, including the Meta AI app, ad tools, and smart glasses.
Meta’s pulling in $165 billion a year from ads, giving them the cash to fund this AI frenzy. Their ad biz, especially on Instagram, is getting a boost from AI, helping drive more Instagram views with smarter targeting. The company has bumped its 2025 capital expenditure to $64–$72 billion, a sharp increase from last year’s $40 billion, with the bulk earmarked for data centers and servers. “We have the capital to do this,” Zuckerberg said confidently, addressing investor jitters about the massive outlay. Meta’s stock ticked up 1.01% to $724.76 by midday Monday, reflecting cautious optimism.
The Prometheus supercluster, set to rise in New Albany, Ohio, will rely on gas turbines, while Hyperion, planned for Richland Parish, Louisiana, will sprawl across 4 million square feet by 2030. Meta is also exploring renewable energy to power these clusters, though specifics remain under wraps. “Meta Superintelligence Labs will have industry-leading compute and the most compute per researcher,” Zuckerberg boasted, emphasizing his goal to assemble the “most elite and talent-dense team” to rival heavyweights like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
Whispers in the industry suggest Meta might pivot from its open-source roots, with some in Superintelligence Labs considering shelving the powerful Behemoth model for a closed-source alternative, according to the New York Times. Analyst Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson noted that while AI has already juiced Meta’s ad revenue by enabling pricier and more targeted ads, the supercluster investment is a long-term bet. “This scale is about securing the leading AI model, which could take years to pay off,” Luria said.
As Meta races to outpace competitors, Zuckerberg’s vision is clear: build the biggest, most powerful AI infrastructure and pair it with the sharpest minds in the field. Whether this colossal investment will catapult Meta to the forefront of artificial superintelligence remains to be seen, but one thing’s certain—Zuckerberg’s all-in.
