Zuckerberg vows Meta will lead despite DeepSeek disruption

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has moved to encourage optimism after DeepSeek’s AI models sent out multiple shockwaves that rocked Wall Street. Nvidia’s stock tanked nearly 20% as investors feared its AI models could slash GPU demand. The rise of the Chinese artificial intelligence company has also left the crypto market bleeding over uncertainties.

However, Mark Zuckerberg appears unfazed at the moment. Meta is reportedly planning to spend hundreds of billions on AI in the long run. In 2025 alone, Meta is expected to spend more than $60 billion on AI infrastructure, which is mostly data centers. Zuckerberg believes AI infrastructure will be a major strategic advantage as the competition gets tougher.

Zuckerberg remains bullish on AI infrastructure

DeepSeek’s efficiency is raising eyebrows, but Zuckerberg feels that it’s “way too early” to bet against AI chip demand. He acknowledges DeepSeek as a rising competitor but remains unconvinced that GPU demand will decline. Billions of users still rely on GPU-powered AI services. 

Meta’s CEO mentioned that at this point, he would bet that the ability to build out that kind of infrastructure will prove to be an upper hand in the game. This will be for both the quality of the service and the ability to serve the user base that Meta wants to reach.

Rolling out its next model, Llama 4, will be a big deal for Meta. Zuckerberg wants it to outperform even closed models like ChatGPT. He expects it to hold agentic capabilities which both OpenAI and Anthropic have moved into along with multimodal ones.

“Our goal for Llama 3 was to make open-source competitive,” Zuckerberg said. “With Llama 4, we want to lead,” he stated.

DeepSeek’s rise puts AI spending under the microscope 

Meta and Microsoft CEOs are now defending hefty AI spending after DeepSeek entered the scene. Microsoft shares dropped 5% after its Azure growth forecast disappointed, but Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, stated that the spending is needed to break capacity constraints as per reports.

On a call with analysts, Nadella said that as AI becomes more efficient and accessible, the market will see exponentially more demand. The tech company has set aside $80 billion for AI in its current fiscal year. On the other hand, Meta has pledged around $65 billion toward the same cause.

While US giants are burning cash, DeepSeek built a rival AI model for $6 million, which is just a fraction of what OpenAI, Meta, and Google spend. 

Microsoft (MSFT) saw a marginal surge over the last five days, but it is back to printing red indexes in the last 24 hours. MSFT is flashing a decline of around 16% in the pre-market trading session, reflecting more pain ahead. It traded at an average price of $442.33 in the last trading session.

Meta has managed to keep its boat sailing while others tumbled. The social media platform is in the midst of a 16% surge in the pre-market session, reflecting a massive surge after Zuckerberg’s address. Meta traded at an average price of $676.49 during the last session.