Chasing a dream ...

FotoField / Shutterstock / Futurism

Chasing a dream applies even if the dream itself becomes a nightmare as limitless money tends to cloud one's mind in conveying a vision even if there is none. Zuck's a prime example of why this take applies.

Despite having almost nothing to show from his enormous spending on AI,
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is doubling down.

Earlier this week, the social media company announced during its second quarter earnings call that it was raising capital expenditures from $125 billion to at least $130 billion, a clear sign that it’s not taking its foot off the pedal.

Yet amid renewed concerns that the tech industry may be nearing the edge of a cliff thanks to its obsession with building out enormously expensive data centers without a clear path to profitability, investors sent back a clear signal in return. Meta’s shares nosedived following its announcement, plummeting over 11 percent over the last five days alone.

According to Zuckerberg, all that extra AI spending was “accelerating every part of our core business.”
He also claimed that some of the tech would be sold off to other businesses.

But whether the company will have anything compelling to offer them remains dubious at best. Meta has been burning through its funds at an alarming rate. Even strong revenue numbers — a 28 percent increase this latest quarter compared to the same period last year — couldn’t stem the bleeding, with free cash flow sinking to the lowest level in at least five years thanks to AI spending.

Despite committing well over $100 billion to the tech, Meta has been practically absent from the frontier AI model race. Its so-called Superintelligence Lab has turned into a “soul-crushing gulag” plagued with
rock-bottom morale — and most importantly, it’s not getting results.

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism.
Source: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Shutterstock