Meta to spend as much as $65B on AI in ’25

Meta Platforms Inc. plans to invest as much as $65 billion on projects related to artificial intelligence in 2025, including building a giant new data center and increasing hiring in AI teams, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday.

The company intends to use the funds to build a data center “so large that it would cover a significant part of Manhattan,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Meta plans to bring around a gigawatt of computing power online in 2025 and is projected to end the year with more than 1.3 million graphics processing units, he added.

“This is a massive effort, and over the coming years it will drive our core products and business, unlock historic innovation, and extend American technology leadership,” Zuckerberg wrote in the post.

Meta has invested significantly in AI over the last several years, and recently announced a new $10 billion data center in Louisiana. It has also bought new computer chips to power products like its AI assistant and its Ray-Ban smartglasses. Zuckerberg added that Meta will be “growing our AI teams significantly” in 2025. Zuckerberg’s announcement comes days after OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp. and Oracle Corp. announced a $100 billion joint venture called Stargate to build out data centers and AI infrastructure projects around the U.S.

Ford recalls more than 270,000 vehicles

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 272,827 Broncos and Mavericks due to a power problem that can cause vehicles to stop unexpectedly or fail to start.

Information from the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration says the problem is related to a 12 volt battery made by Camel Battery of China that has “internal manufacturing defects,” including weld failures that can cause open circuits.

It said there were no reports of accidents, fires or injuries caused by the problem.

The vehicles were made between February 2021 and October 2023, when Ford stopped using those specific batteries. The defects are thought to affect only 1% of the vehicles equipped with the batteries.

Ford pledged in November to review and improve its recall decision-making process and to submit to monitoring by an independent third party that will oversee its recall performance for three years after the U.S. government fines it for moving too slowly on an earlier recall.

boeing sees steep fourth-quarter loss

Boeing Co. suffered another quarter of fresh charges and losses, highlighting the long road ahead for CEO Kelly Ortberg as he tries to stabilize the U.S. aircraft manufacturer.

In a surprise announcement late on Thursday, Boeing said sales were $15.2 billion, less than the $16.76 billion expected by Wall Street. The loss per share was $5.46 under generally accepted accounting principles, Boeing said in a statement, citing preliminary figures ahead of its scheduled release early next week.

While much of the public attention has been on Boeing’s troubled civil aviation unit, the figures revealed the equally precarious state of the defense business, which suffered $1.7 billion in charges tied to five programs, including KC-46 aerial refueling tanker and the long-delayed new Air Force One presidential planes.

Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit will book $1.1 billion in accounting charges on its 767 and the delayed 777X widebody jets, some of it related to the work stoppage. The new iteration of Boeing’s largest long-range plane is still scheduled to for first delivery in 2026, Boeing said.

Bloomberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.