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Zuckerberg: Meta’s AI-training cluster is bigger than Musk’s

The Meta chief plans to spend an entire quarter’s worth of revenue building out its AI infrastructure.

10/31/24 11:51AM

Meta is plowing full speed ahead on AI, and plans to spend a quarter’s worth of revenue on building out its infrastructure for the technology.

In a call announcing Meta’s Q3 earnings, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s next AI model, Llama 4, is currently being trained on a massive supercomputer cluster larger than Elon Musk’s xAI cluster of 100,000 H100 Nvidia GPUs.

“We’re training the Llama 4 models on a cluster that is bigger than 100K H100s or bigger than anything that I’ve seen reported for what others are doing,” said Zuckerberg in the earnings call.

Companies and (and governments) have been hoarding the popular Nvidia H100 GPU to train ever-larger AI models.

Zuckerberg said the smaller versions of the new Llama 4 model should be released early next year, and that the company is working to get the current versions of Llama into the hands of government agencies. “We’re working with enterprises to make it easier to use, and now we’re also working with the public sector to adopt Llama across the US government,” Zuckerberg said in the earnings call.

Meta says it will spend more on capital expenditures as it continues to scale its investment in AI, expecting to spend between $38 billion and $40 billion, an increase from last quarter’s estimate of $37 billion to $40 billion. That amount is about the size of the company’s overall revenue for the quarter, which grew 19% to $40.6 billion.

Despite reportedly laying off employees for their misuse of $25 meal vouchers, Meta’s headcount has increased 9% year over year to 72,404 workers.

Reality Labs is the division responsible for the ultra-thick augmented reality glasses code-named Orion, as well as its Meta Quest VR headsets. Meta continues to expect 2024 operating losses for the unit “due to our ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale our ecosystem,” according to the earnings release. The division lost $4.4 billion this quarter.

Meta said that its generative AI tools are already being used by more than 1 million advertisers to create 15 million ads, which have led to an increase in ad performance.

Zuckerberg also announced that the social-media platform Threads — launched after Elon Musk purchased Twitter — is growing fast, signing up 1 million users per day, and now has a total of 275 million users.

“I’m pretty amped about all the work we’re doing right now. This may be the most dynamic moment that I’ve seen in our industry, and I’m focused on making sure that we build some awesome things and make the most of the opportunities ahead,” Zuckerberg said.

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Electronic Arts launches a platform to put more ads in its games

Video game publishing giant EA launched a new platform on Monday designed to make the process of selling immersive ad space in its popular games easier.

The company says the platform, called EA Advertising, allows brands to “integrate directly into gameplay through dynamic, real-time placements, from stadium signage to custom in-game content.”

More so than other studios, EA has incorporated advertising into its most popular titles. As Kotaku points out, the company’s ad efforts stretch as far back as 2006. Several of its sports franchises already feature partnerships with brands like Visa, Lowe’s, Red Bull, and PepsiCo.

In-game advertising hasn’t exactly been embraced by fans, but industry experts expect it to ramp up as companies seek more revenue to offset higher games budgets and surging memory costs. EA rival Take-Two has taken a different approach, with CEO Strauss Zelnick recently saying the company was “not at risk of doing brand partnerships” in the forthcoming “Grand Theft Auto VI,” and that ads in full-price games seems “unfair.”

The $55 billion deal to take EA private, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, is set to close at the end of this month. Being the largest leveraged buyout in history, EA will likely look for more ways to boost revenue to cover interest payments.

Electronic Arts Makes Push for Ad Dollars Tied to Sports

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JM Smucker says it sold $1 billion worth of Uncrustables in FY2026

After years of booming sandwich sales, JM Smucker has finally earned a billion-dollar crust.

On Tuesday, the company reported results for fiscal year 2026, highlighting better-than-expected profits driven by higher prices for coffee and sweet baked goods. However, at another point on the earnings call, CEO Mark Smucker pointed to one particularly jammy figure: in line with previous forecasts, the company sold $1 billion worth of its (almost always) crustless sandwiches, Uncrustables, in the last year alone.

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

Paramount reportedly offers concessions to resolve multistate antitrust investigation

Paramount has reportedly offered up some concessions in an effort to prevent an antitrust lawsuit by California and about 10 other states, according to Bloomberg reporting on Monday.

Reuters first reported on the potential suit from a group of unnamed states last week, which could throw a wrench in Paramount’s plans to buy rival Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood megamerger.

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

Paramount Offers Concessions to Head Off State Antitrust Lawsuit

The list of concessions is unknown, though Bloomberg previously reported that Paramount is open to divesting some of its kids TV assets to appease EU regulators.

Late last month, reports said US regulators appeared likely to approve the $110 billion merger, following a meeting between Paramount CEO David Ellison and DOJ antitrust staffers.

$98B ⛽

Max Knoblauch6/8/26

The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”

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The Switch 2 launched on this day in 2025. Amid a rough year for consoles, Nintendo has logged a good one.

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