Mark Zuckerberg is going all in. The Meta CEO, eager to recover from underwhelming returns on his AI platform Llama, is launching what might be the boldest and most expensive tech initiative of the decade. His target? Superintelligence.
In a dramatic pivot from recent AI stumbles, Zuckerberg is planning to invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” into cutting-edge AI infrastructure and talent. It’s a full-throttle charge into a future where machines could surpass human intelligence, and Meta doesn’t want to play catch-up.
“We’re also going to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into compute to build superintelligence,” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads, his company’s answer to X.
Elite AI Dream Team, NBA-Sized Salaries
To kickstart the plan, Zuckerberg is assembling what he claims will be “the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry.”
“For our superintelligence effort, I’m focused on building the most elite and talent-dense team in the industry,” he said on Threads.
How elite? According to SemiAnalysis, Meta is handing out compensation packages worth $200 million over four years, figures typically reserved for NBA superstars, not engineers. Some sources claim billion-dollar offers were floated to top OpenAI researchers and turned down.
Zuckerberg isn’t bluffing. He’s putting his wallet where his ambitions are.
Gigantic Data Centers: Prometheus and Hyperion Rise
Parallel to the talent war, Meta is constructing data center clusters on a scale that rivals entire cities.
“We’re actually building several multi-[gigawatt] clusters,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“We’re calling the first one Prometheus and it’s coming online in ‘26. We’re also building Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years.”
These centers won’t just be big. Hyperion, the larger of the two, is being built in Richland Parish, Louisiana, and it will nearly match Manhattan in size.
According to reports from Netizen, the Richland site is expected to bring 500 jobs to the region, with an average annual salary of $82,000. Meanwhile, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the Prometheus complex is being built in New Albany, Ohio.
The Power Problem: Can the Grid Handle This?
All of this computing muscle comes at a steep energy cost. Superintelligence demands staggering amounts of power, and Meta may need to get creative to meet it.
The company is reportedly considering tapping into local energy supplies or even developing small modular nuclear reactors. It’s a controversial but potentially effective solution that could benefit neighboring communities as well by lowering energy costs.
“We’re dealing with enormous quantities of energy demand,” warned James Poulos of Blaze Media. “AI inference consumes a lot, and training even more. There’s no clear way to come close to meeting anticipated needs without something like a national nuclear industrial program.”
The concern isn’t isolated to Meta. A recent report by the International Energy Agency found that demand from AI, crypto, and data centers could spike energy consumption by 160 to 590 terawatt-hours next year. That is the equivalent usage of Sweden on the low end or Germany on the high end.
A High-Risk Tech Arms Race
The move throws Meta directly into the center of a digital arms race alongside Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. If successful, Zuckerberg’s bet could transform Meta into the undisputed leader in the AI space.
But the stakes are enormous. Billions are on the line. So is Zuckerberg’s legacy.
And if the gamble fails? It could go down as one of the most spectacular miscalculations in tech history.
