- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s latest model in an all-hands.
- The Meta chief praised its “novel infrastructure optimization advances” in a recording seen by BI.
- Zuckerberg also said it would “benefit” Meta as it can implement some of DeepSeek’s methods.
Though DeepSeek may have caused panic among tech investors this week, Meta executives told staff on Thursday that the Chinese startup’s breakthrough could ultimately benefit Meta’s AI ambitions in the long run.
In a Q&A during a Thursday company all-hands, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked for his thoughts on DeepSeek and how Meta should respond or pivot its infrastructure spend to set itself up for success, according to a recording reviewed by Business Insider.
Zuckerberg responded that he doesn’t think it changes the company’s infrastructure spend.
“DeepSeek had a few pretty novel infrastructure optimization advances, which, fortunately, they published them, so we can not only observe what they did, but we can read about it and implement it, so that’ll benefit us,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg also said that it’s “always interesting when there’s someone who does something better than you” and that it motivates him to “make sure we’re on it.”
Last week, Zuckerberg announced in social media posts on Meta platforms that the company will spend $60 billion to $65 billion in additional capital investment for the year and said 2025 will be a “defining year for AI.”
Nvidia, which builds AI chips, plunged in value this week amid a $1 trillion tech sell-off in the markets over fears that DeepSeek had leapfrogged US AI labs, as the Chinese startup said its R1 model rivaled OpenAI’s o1 across several benchmarks and that it was built for a fraction of the cost and compute power.
DeepSeek’s claims have caused investors to question Big Tech firms’ spending on AI infrastructure, and shares plummetted. By Wednesday, tech stocks had partially recovered.
Meta CFO Susan Li told staff on Thursday that Meta was “seen as more insulated” from DeepSeek’s market impact than other companies because it didn’t rely on selling its own open-source AI model, Llama, to generate revenue.
“Does it mean that over the longer run, Meta will have to spend less on infrastructure investment or get more for their existing their existing investment?” Li said. “That’s definitely sort of what I’ve heard so far in a few calls since the earnings call yesterday with our analysts and our investors in terms of parsing where reactions are.”
Meta declined to comment.
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