Meta (META.US) bets on the future of American AI: $60 billion investment plan announced for 2028, with public utility collaborations providing escort.

On Friday, local time, Meta Platforms (META.US) outlined its $600 billion capital expenditure plan to build artificial intelligence-related infrastructure (such as data centers) in the United States by 2028. After the announcement, the stock price initially fell by over 2% on the same day, but quickly rebounded, closing up 0.45% at $621.71. "Data centers are crucial to achieving these goals and helping the United States maintain its technological edge," Meta stated. "Therefore, we are investing in building industry-leading artificial intelligence data centers in the United States. By 2028, we are committing to invest over $600 billion in the United States to support the expansion of artificial intelligence technology, infrastructure, and workforce - our investments have already yielded results." In addition to building data centers, Meta is also partnering with local utilities to secure the water and power resources needed for operations. In the past two months, Meta has announced plans to build or expand data centers in El Paso, Texas, Montgomery, Alabama, and Kansas City, Missouri. The company aims to achieve "water resource net benefits" in data centers by 2030. For example, the El Paso data center is expected to restore 200% of its water consumption to the local watershed. The $600 billion figure was first disclosed in early September, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was attending a technology leaders meeting in the White House Rose Garden. Rival tech giant Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) recently raised its capital expenditure forecast for 2025 to $91-93 billion. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.US) plans to invest $88.7 billion in capital expenditures for the full 2026 fiscal year, with capital expenditures for the 2025 and 2024 fiscal years at $64.55 billion and $44.8 billion, respectively.