Meta spent $14.3B this year on its AI unit, now called Superintelligence Labs.

Meta’s third‑quarter earnings call was heavy on Mark Zuckerberg trying to justify why the company is pouring money into AI like there’s no tomorrow.

The company has already put $14.3 billion into Scale AI this year, which is now rebranded as Superintelligence Labs. This is Meta’s new central unit for its AI work.

The spending is large, and yes, it is making investors uneasy, especially with talk that AI spending across big tech is creating a bubble.

But still, Mark repeated his belief that it is better to spend too much now than fall behind. He said the company is preparing for what it believes is going to be a long race.

Meta is building huge data centers and signing cloud deals with Google, Oracle, and CoreWeave to get enough computing power for these AI systems.

Mark said the company is seeing a “pattern,” meaning the amount of compute needed is going up faster than expected. He said Meta will likely need even more infrastructure. He said these investments will “over time” be worth it.

Mark then said that even if Meta spends too much now, it can still use extra capacity to improve its apps, recommendations, and ads. He also said the capacity could be repurposed across the business “in a profitable way.”

Meta pushes spending higher

Meta has now raised its capital spending range for the year. Capex will be between $70 billion and $72 billion, compared with an earlier range of $66 billion to $72 billion. Mark is not the only one increasing spending.

Alphabet raised its own capex forecast to $91 billion to $93 billion, up from $75 billion to $85 billion. Microsoft said its capital spending is also going up and now expects faster growth in 2026 after previously saying expansion would slow.

The market reacted differently to each company. Alphabet’s stock rose 6% in extended trading. Meta’s stock fell around 8% after the call. Microsoft shares slipped more than 3%. Some investors are not convinced that constant expansion makes sense. Some are asking why these companies need to spend at levels usually reserved for national infrastructure projects.

Mark did mention an option the company may use if it ends up with more computing resources than needed. He said Meta could offer some of that capacity to third parties. But he also said that is not something the company is planning to do right now.

The Meta boss said, “Obviously, if you got to a point where you overbuilt, you could have that as an option.” He also said that in the “very worst case,” Meta would hold excess data center capacity for years, which would mean depreciation losses. But he said the company would “grow into that and use it over time.”

Meta keeps ads business stable while investing

Even with all this spending and uncertainty, Meta’s advertising business is still strong. Mark said the company is already seeing “returns in the core business” from its AI investments.

He said this gives Meta confidence to invest more, not less. The company does not want to fall behind. He said the goal is to avoid under investing, not to spend cautiously.

Cryptopolitan reported that Meta’s revenue for the third quarter reached $51.24 billion, which is 26% higher than the same period a year ago.

Analysts were expecting $49.41 billion. This is Meta’s fastest growth rate since the first quarter of 2024. The growth is one of the key reasons Meta says the spending is justified.

Meta believes that if it does not spend now, it risks losing ground to others. The bet is that by building the biggest AI infrastructure early, Meta can control its own future instead of renting its ambitions from somewhere else.

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.