Meta Prepares Jumbo Capital Expenditure 2026 To Encourage Super Intelligence AI Development

JAKARTA-Meta Platforms Inc. (Facebook and Instagram contacts) are projecting a major spike in capital spending next year as Mark Zuckerberg affirms its ambition to build super-scale artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Meta's Chief Financial Officer, Susan Li, stated that 2026's capital expenditure (capex) will increase significantly as the company is accelerating the construction of data centers to support AI expansion. We see much larger spending next year, especially to strengthen AI's computing capacity," he said.

In the third quarter of 2025, Meta's revenue grew 26 percent, surpassing analysts' expectations. However, the company's costs actually jumped 32 percent, putting profit margins under pressure. Meta's share price, which has risen 28 percent so far this year, fell 8 percent after the close of the stock exchange after Wall Street digested Zuckerberg's big plan which is considered to be reducing short-term profit.

Meta also recorded a one-time burden of nearly USD 16 billion due to President Donald Trump's fiscal Big Beautiful Bill policy which reduced quarterly net profit to USD 2.71 billion. Without this burden, net profit should have reached 18.64 billion dollars.

In a call to analysts, Zuckerberg emphasized his vision of aggressively facing AI's future. He expressed confidence that building computing capacity quickly is the best strategy to anticipate the most optimistic scenario towards theoretical super intelligence in which machines surpass human intelligence.

If super intelligence comes any later, the extra computing capacity will accelerate our core business. If it's too fast, we're ready. If it's too long, we can hold down the construction temporarily," he explained in a pragmatic tone.

Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman assesses Meta has now rediscovered its momentum. After several years of full existential confusion, Meta returns to its DNA: increasing its attention and monetizing it with brutal efficiency. While other competitors are still making assumptions about AI moonshot', Meta has turned AI into a real margin," he said.

Meta last June formed a new division called Super Intelligence Labs to focus on AI research. Zuckerberg directly leads the massive recruitment of global AI talents, making employee salaries the second largest component of rising costs next year.

We have built a laboratory with the highest talent density in the industry, said Zuckerberg. And we are also preparing the largest number of computing ever.

Meta is one of the main buyers of the Nvidia AI chip, competing closely with Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and OpenAI in building supergiant data centers. This development rate has raised concerns about the formation of the AI bubble', as each tech giant competes to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in computational capacity.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman even expressed his desire to increase the capacity of 1 gigawatt of computing per week's equivalent to more than 40 billion dollars for each gigawatt unit.

Meta raised lower limits on capital expenditure projections by 2025 from 66 billion to $70.72 billion.

On the core business side, Meta still enjoys the advantages of the giant user base: more than 3.5 billion people use at least one Meta app every day.

Its AI-based advertising platform is now capable of automating campaigns, translating cross-language advertising, and creating images of the persona according to market targets. This innovation strengthens advertising revenues from WhatsApp and Threads, as well as challenges the dominance of X (owned by Elon Musk), TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.

For the fourth quarter, Meta estimates revenues between 56 to 59 billion US dollars are slightly above analyst estimates, which projected an average of 57.25 billion dollars, according to LSEG data.

Market observer Jesse Cohen said Meta's financial reports showed a massive interest between investing in AI and investor pressure for quick results. But the business foundation remains solid.

Zuckerberg doesn't seem afraid. In the midst of a market that is still considering the risk of AI bubbles, Meta is actually preparing itself to become the center of new gravity for the digital economy based on super intelligence.

This Meta move reinforces the big trend on Wall Street: the more money, chips, and data centers are encouraged for one purpose making AI not just a tool, but the brain of the future