Meta’s Playing Keep-Away With Its Best AI… And Investing $1B in a Cheese Curd Data Center

Meta’s in the middle of one of the worst selloffs it’s ever experienced since it IPO’d in 2012. The stock’s down 19%, wiping out $307 billion in market cap. But if you thought that would make Mark Zuckerberg worried, think again. The man who once tried to make us all show up to work meetings as legless cartoon avatars is now officially “balls to the wall” with Meta’s AI ambitions.

Case in point, over the weekend, Zuck launched Meta’s next-gen Llama 4 AI models and announced he is dropping nearly $1 billion into a new data center in central Wisconsin. If there’s one thing Zuck loves more than cage-fighting Dana White’s friends, it’s constantly pushing the limits on technology.

Over the weekend, Meta rolled out its latest AI model: Llama 4, a powerful open-source model now integrated into Meta AI across WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DMs, and a standalone chatbot site. So yes, the same app you used to send memes last night is now being quietly powered by one of the most sophisticated language models Meta’s ever built (makes you feel proud, right?).

Right now, there are two versions out: Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick… both tuned for chat interactions and ready to compete with the likes of ChatGPT and Claude. But the most powerful version of Llama 4 hasn’t even been released yet. It’s still cooking behind the scenes… and Meta says it’s so advanced, they’re using it to "teach" the others (when your stock is deep in the red, it’s always smart to drum up some excitement for potential catalysts).

But there’s a problem. One of the models, Maverick, ranked #2 on LM Arena, a popular leaderboard where humans judge AI responses head-to-head. But some AI researchers pointed out that Meta might’ve used a tweaked version to get those rankings… a version developers don’t actually have access to. That’s like when Mark Mcguire broke the single season home run record… on steroids.

Of course, this isn’t the first time an AI company has blurred the lines between test model and production model. But it does highlight one big issue in the open-source AI world… how do you benchmark something when the version you’re playing with isn’t the one being scored?

While the software side’s heating up, Meta’s also going full tilt on hardware. According to a recent report, the company is pumping $1 billion into a new data center project in Wisconsin.

It’s not a one-off, either. Meta’s budget for infrastructure spending in 2025 is now up to $65 billion (as opposed to $39 billion in 2024). Let that sink in. They're already laying foundations in Louisiana, have massive operations in Iowa and Illinois, and are reportedly exploring plans for a $200 billion "super campus", which would become one of the largest private infrastructure projects in U.S. tech history. There’s also talk of a $35 billion financing package to make it all happen.

Of course, Meta’s not the only tech giant buying up cornfield real estate like it’s beachfront property. Microsoft’s throwing $3.3 billion at Racine County, Wisconsin, to build an AI data center and train 100,000 people in AI by 2030.

And then there’s OpenAI, Microsoft’s favorite lab partner, scoping out Wisconsin and Iowa for a slice of its $500 billion Stargate project (yes, half a trillion dollars… no big deal, just trying to build Skynet in the middle of dairy country).

If you’re wondering why everyone is stampeding into the Midwest, here’s the answer… it’s got cheap land, strong power grids, and generous tax breaks… basically the holy trinity for data centers. It’s quickly becoming the new Silicon Valley, only with more cheese curds and more Dollar Generals.

So yes, despite shedding $307 billion in market cap the last month, Zuckerberg isn’t exactly in retreat mode. He’s still in build mode… from AI tools to data centers to whatever else he can strap a GPU to. (If your fridge starts recommending reels soon, you’ll know why.)

To me the strategy is clear… unlike some companies chasing AI trends like this week's new ice cream flavor, Meta’s trying to own the tracks they run on. From the infrastructure to the models, Zuck wants the whole thing under his roof.

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Stock.News has positions in Meta and Microsoft.