Zuckerberg gave Alexandr Wang $100 billion, then asked: ‘Are you sure this will work’
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and AI lead Alexandr Wang discuss the high-stakes financial gamble behind Meta's massive investment in AI development. Executives expressed significant concern over the potential financial fallout if the new AI models failed to perform.
Why it matters
It provides insight into the immense capital expenditure and corporate risk management strategies currently driving the AI industry.
Mark Zuckerberg has revealed the moment he nearly second-guessed the biggest bet of his career. Appearing on the Cheeky Pint podcast with Meta's chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, the Meta CEO recalled weighing the spending ahead and putting a blunt question to Wang. "We're gonna write this cheque for like a hundred billion dollars or two hundred billion dollars," Zuckerberg said. "I'm like, 'Alex, you sure this is gonna work?'"Wang didn't pretend he was. The Scale AI founder, who now runs Meta Superintelligence Labs, said that towards the end of 2025 he had little more than "a vibe report" on research progress and "some plots" to back it up. "I was feeling good about it, but it was certainly not clear at all that it was going to work," he admitted.
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