Meta launches Meta Compute initiative to build tens of gigawatts of AI infrastructure capacity

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is launching its own AI infrastructure initiative | TechCrunch

When Meta announced capital expenditure projections last year, the company made it known that it planned to spend big to build out capacity for its AI business. "We expect that developing leading AI infrastructure will be a core advantage in developing the best AI models and product experiences," said Susan Li, Meta CFO, during an earnings call last summer. Now, the tech giant appears to be making good on that promise. On Monday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Meta Compute, a new initiative designed to bolster the tech giant's AI infrastructure. Zuckerberg said the company intended to drastically expand its energy footprint in the coming years. "Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time. How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage," Zuckerberg said, in a post on Threads. For reference, a gigawatt is a measurement of electrical power equivalent to a billion watts. The energy-hungry AI business means that America's electrical consumption could spike exponentially over the next decade (from 5 GW to 50, according to one estimate). Zuckerberg has named three executives that he says will be spearheading the new project. One of those people is Santosh Janardhan, the company's head of global infrastructure. Janardhan, who has been with the company since 2009, will lead work on "technical architecture, software stack, silicon program, developer productivity, and building and operating our global datacenter fleet and network," Zuckerberg said. Also involved is Daniel Gross, who joined the company just last year. Gross is the co-founder of Safe Superintelligence, along with former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Zuckerberg said that Gross would be leading a new group within Meta that is "responsible for long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and business modeling." Finally, Zuckerberg said that Dina Powell McCormick, a former government official who recently joined Meta as the company's president and vice chairman, would be responsible for working with governments to help "build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure." There's obviously a race to build out genAI-ready cloud environments, and Capex projections announced last year showed most of Meta's peers had similar ambitions. Microsoft has been busy partnering with AI infrastructure providers wherever it can and, in December, Google parent company Alphabet announced the acquisition of data center firm Intersect. TechCrunch reached out to Meta for more information about the new initiative.

Zuckerberg eyes massive DC expansion with Meta Compute play

Meta has formed a new initiative called "Meta Compute" to oversee the planning, deployment, and operations of its growing fleet of AI datacenters. "Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time. How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage," wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post to his Twitter clone, Threads, on Monday. The news comes just hours after Zuckerberg revealed that Dina Powell McCormick, who previously spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs and served as an advisor to President Trump, had joined the company as President and Vice Chairman. According to Zuck, Meta Compute will be led by Santosh Janardhan, the company's head of global infrastructure, and Daniel Gross, who joined Meta's Superintelligence team in mid-2025. "Santosh will continue to lead our technical architecture, software stack, silicon program, developer productivity, and building and operating our global datacenter fleet and network," he explained. "Daniel will lead a new group responsible for long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and business modeling." Both executives will work closely with McCormick, who Zuck noted would be focusing much of her energy on "partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure." The initiative comes as Meta continues to spend lavishly in pursuit of delivering "personal superintelligence" to the masses. Meta forecast $72 billion capital expenditure in pursuit of that goal during its fiscal 2025, and higher spending in the following year. However, compared to its competitors, Meta doesn't have much to show for all of its spending. Following the lackluster reception of its open-source Llama 4 models, a talent war with OpenAI, and the departure of machine learning guru Yann Lecun, the company's next-gen foundation models remain shrouded in mystery. After touting open source model development, Zuckerberg has reportedly abandoned Llama and pivoted to building proprietary models under the codenames Avocado and Mango. However, at the same time, Meta continues to release models like its Segment Anything Series (SAM) in the open. Despite missing the mark on Llama 4, Zuckerberg clearly hasn't given up on his generative AI aspirations and is pushing ahead with ever more grandiose infrastructure projects. Meta is currently working on multiple gigawatt-scale datacenter construction projects across Ohio, Louisiana, and Texas, plus other locations. To keep this expansion from running out of steam, Meta last week signed three new long-term contracts with TerraPower, Oklo, and Vistra for nuclear energy. Combined with the company's existing commitments with Constellation Energy, the Social Network has now contracted for roughly 6.6 gigawatts of atomic power. ®

Meta to establish 'Meta Compute' initiative to build gigawatt-scale capacity

Jan 12 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab will establish Meta Compute to construct tens of gigawatts of computing infrastructure this decade and hundreds of gigawatts more in the future, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday. The Meta Compute effort will be spearheaded by Santosh Janardhan, Meta's head of global infrastructure and co-head of engineering, and Daniel Gross, according to Zuckerberg's social media post. They will collaborate closely with Dina Powell McCormick, who has joined Meta as president and vice chairman, he said. Janardhan will continue to oversee Meta's technical architecture, software stack, silicon program, developer productivity and the construction and operation of the company's global data center fleet and network. Gross will take the lead on a newly formed group focused on long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning and business modeling. Meta has been scrambling to stay relevant in Silicon Valley's artificial-intelligence race after its Llama 4 model met with a poor reception. It committed as much as $72 billion in 2025 capital spending. Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Mark Zuckerberg announces new 'Meta Compute' initiative for its data center and AI projects

On the heels of Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Meta's former board member, Dina Powell McCormick, would be formally joining the company as president and vice chairman, the CEO has shared new details about her purview at the company. The executive will play a key role overseeing Meta's sprawling infrastructure investments as part of a newly announced initiative called Meta Compute. "Meta is planning to build tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time," Zuckerberg said in an update. "How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage." Zuckerberg said that Meta's head of global engineering Santosh Janardhan will lead the "top-level initiative" and that recent hire and former Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross will "lead a new group responsible for long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and business modeling." McCormick is expected to "work on partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure." Meta has been investing heavily in infrastructure to fuel its AI "superintelligence" ambitions. The company also recently announced three agreements to buy massive amounts of nuclear power to help power its data centers. Zuckerberg has previously said he expects Meta to spend $600 billion on AI infrastructure and jobs by 2028.

Meta launches new "Meta Compute" initiative to build AI infrastructure

Why it matters: The announcement, coming shortly after the firm named prominent banking executive and former Republican official Dina Powell McCormick as president, suggests Zuckerberg sees Meta's ability to build out AI infrastructure as a strategic long-term advantage over its Big Tech peers. Zoom in: In a statement posted to his Facebook account, Zuckerberg said Meta plans to build tens of gigawatts this decade, "and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time." * "How we engineer, invest, and partner to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage," he wrote. Between the lines: The new effort will be led by former Google executive Santosh Janardhan -- who serves as Meta's head of global infrastructure and co-head of engineering -- as well as Daniel Gross, who joined Meta last year from Safe Superintelligence, where he served as CEO and co-founder. * Both leaders will work closely with Powell McCormick, who will be focused on partnering with governments and sovereigns "to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure," Zuckerberg noted. Zoom out: Meta previously said it intends to invest $600 billion in American infrastructure and jobs, "including industry-leading AI data centers" by 2028, but it has not offered many details around how that deployed capital fits into the company's long-term strategic vision. * The new unit announced Monday -- focused specifically on AI infrastructure, and with executives reporting to Zuckerberg -- suggests Meta's CEO is taking a more hands-on approach to the company's AI infrastructure strategy to pioneer its next phase of growth. What to watch: The creation of Meta Compute formalizes Meta's infrastructure efforts in a way that could help the company better manage the political and economic scrutiny that often comes with building data centers.

Meta establishes new top-level initiative for computing infrastructure By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of a new top-level initiative called Meta Compute, focused on building significant computing infrastructure over the coming years. In a post on Threads, Zuckerberg revealed plans to build "tens of gigawatts this decade, and hundreds of gigawatts or more over time." He emphasized that how the company engineers, invests, and forms partnerships to build this infrastructure will become a strategic advantage for Meta. The initiative will be led by Santosh Janardhan and Daniel Gross. Janardhan will continue overseeing technical architecture, software stack, silicon program, developer productivity, and the operation of Meta's global datacenter fleet and network. Gross will head a new group responsible for long-term capacity strategy, supplier partnerships, industry analysis, planning, and business modeling. Both leaders will work closely with Dina Powell McCormick, who recently joined Meta as President and Vice Chairman. McCormick's role involves partnering with governments and sovereigns to build, deploy, invest in, and finance Meta's infrastructure. Zuckerberg stated he looks forward to working with the team to "scale Meta Compute and deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people around the world." This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Meta Unveils Meta Compute", its ambitious computing infrastructure at the gigawatt scale

On Monday Meta launched "Meta Compute", a new strategic initiative aimed at building massive computing infrastructure to support its artificial intelligence ambitions. The group plans to deploy several dozen gigawatts of capacity by the end of the decade, and hundreds of additional gigawatts over the longer term. The project is part of a broader technological catch-up effort following the mixed reception of its Llama 4 model and a record $72bn investment in 2025. Leadership of "Meta Compute" has been entrusted to Santosh Janardhan, head of global infrastructure, and Daniel Gross, a former investor and entrepreneur specializing in cutting-edge technologies. Janardhan will retain oversight of the technical architecture, data centers, the chip program and development tools. Gross will lead a new unit focused on capacity planning, strategic partnerships and long-term economic modeling. Mark Zuckerberg said that the project will be carried out in close coordination with Dina Powell McCormick, recently appointed Meta's president. With "Meta Compute", the company aims to position itself as a central player in very large-scale AI infrastructure, a field that has become critical amid competition from Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. This ramp-up marks a new phase in Meta's industrial strategy, centered on deploying massive capacity to support the development and training of its future artificial intelligence models.