Wall Street is validating Meta‘s efforts to create the artificial intelligence big brother with more investment. According to CNBC:
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to ramp up his company’s spending on artificial intelligence in 2026. Wall Street seems fine with that strategy.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Meta beat on the top and bottom lines while also revealing that its AI-related capital expenditures this year will be between $115 billion and $135 billion. That’s nearly twice the amount Meta spent on capex last year, when the company revamped its AI unit.
Although investors have previously expressed concern about Meta’s AI spending spree, they took comfort in the company’s latest results, which showed 24% year-over-year revenue growth, driven by online ads. Meta shares, which trailed the market last year, popped as much as 10% in after-hours trading.
“As we plan for the future, we will continue to invest very significantly in infrastructure to train leading models and deliver personal super intelligence to billions of people and businesses around the world,” Zuckerberg told analysts during the earnings call.
NLPC presented a shareholder proposal at Meta’s 2025 annual meeting asking the company to produce a report disclosing its safeguards against spying on customers and improper data collection. As we detailed in our supporting proxy memo, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Meta does not necessarily have the best record on data ethics.
“Personal super intelligence” sounds particularly dystopian. The end goal appears to be increasing time spent on Meta’s platforms, collecting more customer information, and building more accurate customer profiles. In effect, Meta is turning into the AI “big brother” NLPC has warned about. But as long as the investments continue to yield profit, Wall Street will continue to support them. NLPC is trying to be the voice of reason from a shareholder’s perspective.
