Meta was prepared to write an up to $200 billion AI check before knowing whether its model would work

Zuckerberg said that in late 2025, Meta weighed a $200 billion AI bet before seeing its new models. Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Zuckerberg said Meta weighed a $200 billion AI bet before seeing its new models. Alexandr Wang said Meta's CFO warned failure would be "very, very bad" financially. Meta's capex spending has been substantial and has raised eyebrows among investors Mark Zuckerberg was ready to bet as much as $200 billion on AI, and Meta’s finance chief wanted the person building it to understand what failure would mean. On the Cheeky Pint podcast released on Monday, Meta CEO and Alexandr Wang , Meta's chief AI officer, recounted conversations from late last year about enormous investments before Meta’s new models had proven themselves. “At the end of last year, we're like, all right, we are quite excited about the progress.