Meta Platforms is deepening its AI ambitions with a series of high-value infrastructure deals and investments. The high-profile moves have kept Meta stock in the spotlight among investors and analysts.
For example, on October 15, Meta announced a $1.5 billion investment to build a new data center in El Paso, Texas, to support growing AI workloads across its family of applications, including Facebook and Instagram.
The facility is expected to deliver up to 1 gigawatt of capacity and will be Meta’s 29th data center. This new AI-focused data center will also “contribute to El Paso’s economic growth, supporting 1,800 construction jobs at peak and creating around 100 operational jobs for the initial phase,” according to Meta’s statement.
This announcement follows an even larger $14 billion, multi-year partnership with CoreWeave, an AI cloud provider.
These technology commitments underscore the social media giant’s ongoing efforts to ensure access to the high-performance computing resources needed to deploy AI models.
Meta shares have gained 22% so far this year.Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The company’s shares, which closed up 1.7% on Oct. 17, are up 22% so far this year despite an 8% drop over the past month.
In yet another strategic partnership, Meta announced a collaboration with Arm Holdings to scale AI efficiency and improve user experience around the world.
From the experiences on our platforms to the devices we build, AI is transforming the way people connect and create.
This partnership with Arm could reduce Meta’s dependence on other chip vendors as it leverages Neoverse server chips and Arm’s open source tools.
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“The next era of AI will be defined by delivering efficiency at scale. By partnering with Meta, we are uniting Arm’s performance-per-watt leadership with Meta’s AI innovation to bring smarter, more efficient intelligence everywhere, from milliwatts to megawatts,” said Rene Hass, CEO of Arm.
Analysts have been largely optimistic about Meta’s AI push. Guggenheim was positive about its third-quarter earnings report. Goldman Sachs raised its price target to $870 from $830, while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock, as TheFly reported.
Meta has also recognized the pressure that data centers put on the environment, including water use.