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."

"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."

Meta launched Meta Compute to expand AI infrastructure and significantly increase its energy footprint. The company intends to build tens of gigawatts this decade and potentially hundreds of gigawatts over time. Meta frames engineering, investment, and partnerships as strategic advantages in building that infrastructure. Rising AI energy demand could drive large increases in electrical consumption, with one estimate projecting U.S. demand growth from 5 GW to 50 GW over the next decade. Meta named executives to lead the effort, including Santosh Janardhan to oversee technical architecture and datacenter operations, and Daniel Gross to lead capacity strategy and supplier partnerships.

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