Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has received strong backing from Wall Street to continue pouring billions into artificial intelligence, as the company’s latest earnings report revealed ambitious plans for 2026. In its fourth-quarter results, Meta surpassed analyst expectations on both revenue and profit, driven by a 24% year-over-year increase in advertising income. The company also announced that its capital expenditures for AI infrastructure in 2025 will range between $115 billion and $135 billion—nearly double the amount spent in 2024, when Meta overhauled its AI division. Despite earlier investor concerns about the scale of Meta’s spending, the market responded positively, sending shares up as much as 10% in after-hours trading. Zuckerberg emphasized that the company remains committed to building the infrastructure needed to train cutting-edge AI models and deliver what he calls “personal super intelligence” to billions of users worldwide. Meta’s finance chief, Susan Li, confirmed that the company remains “capacity constrained,” meaning demand for computing power is outpacing supply. “Our teams have done a great job ramping up infrastructure throughout 2025, but the demand across the company has increased even faster,” she said, highlighting the urgency of expanding data center capacity. Zuckerberg described 2026 as a pivotal year for AI, with Meta focusing on advancing its models and launching multiple new products. “We’re not just launching one thing—we’re building a lot of things,” he said during the earnings call. He also pointed to the company’s $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI as a key strategic move, bringing co-founder and former CEO Alexandr Wang and a team of top researchers to Meta. Wang now leads a newly formed AI unit, known internally as TBD, which is reportedly developing a next-generation model codenamed Avocado—intended as a successor to the Llama series. Zuckerberg said the first models from this effort will be strong, but more importantly, they will demonstrate the rapid progress Meta is making. “I expect us to steadily push the frontier over the course of the year as we continue to release new models,” he added. When asked why Meta needs to build its own foundation model, Zuckerberg stressed that the company is a “deep technology company” and cannot afford to be dependent on external AI ecosystems. “We can’t risk being constrained by what others are building or allowed to build,” he said, underscoring the need to shape the future of AI on its own terms. While AI remains central to Meta’s long-term vision, online advertising continues to dominate its revenue stream. As long as mobile ads remain robust and generate massive cash flow, Zuckerberg is likely to retain significant latitude to pursue his AI ambitions.