AI: Meta beefs up AI Strategy with 'Meta Compute'. RTZ #966

Meta founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg is accelerating his super-sized AI strategy early in 2026. Remember how he amped up the AI Talent quest last year with hires and acqui-hires at Scale AI, OpenAI, Apple and beyond.

The moves will have reverberations going forward in this AI Tech Wave. And of course Meta’s surprising $3 billiion acqusition of Chinese origin AI comnpany Manus a few weeks ago. And of course financing and building AI Data Centers the size of Manhattan and beyond.

That trend continues with a new President and Board Vice-Chair Dina McCormick Powell, and a new reorganization around ‘Meta Compute’.

Axios explains this new AI Infrastructure initiative in “Meta launches new “Meta Compute” initiative to build AI infrastructure”:

“Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said his company is establishing a new “top-level” initiative called Meta Compute that will see the tech giant building “tens of gigawatts” of AI infrastructure this decade.”

“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.”

This multi-gigawatt AI Data Center and Power effort of course accelerates the broader ‘Braggawatt’ trend I discussed a few weeks ago.

The new President Dina Powell McCormick is a particularly canny and timely hire given her blue-chip relationships in finance and government. Especially given the multi-hundred billions to be raised in debt and equity going forward for Meta this year and beyond.

“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.”

Zuck’s initiative also puts more definition around his AI Super-team building Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) I’ve discussed in previous posts.

“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.”

Meta is making its moves early on the AITech Wave board, with January barely up and running. AI at Meta is all that and more. Stay tuned.

(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)