Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has addressed the impact of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s impact during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.
What Happened: During the call, Zuckerberg acknowledged that DeepSeek’s novel approaches are still being evaluated by Meta. He said that the tech industry often learns from new advancements, regardless of their origin.
“I think there's a number of novel things that they did that I think we're still digesting,” he stated.
However, Zuckerberg said, it is too early to predict how these developments will affect the use of infrastructure and capital spending. He said trends are shifting toward using more computing power for running models after they're trained (inference), rather than just training them.
“I continue to think that investing very heavily in CapEx and infra is going to be a strategic advantage over time. It’s possible that we’ll learn otherwise at some point, but I just think it’s way too early to call that,” the CEO stated.
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Why It Matters: DeepSeek has said that it developed its low-cost R1 model in just two months with a $5.6 million investment, raising questions about the cost-effectiveness of AI development.
This announcement has led to market concerns as the Chinese platform showcases its potential to challenge U.S. AI heavyweights like OpenAI, Meta, and Alphabet.
This development has also sparked concerns about the need for large-scale GPU investments, resulting in Nvidia Corporation's (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock falling 17% on Monday, erasing around $600 billion from its market value.
At the same time, the Nasdaq 100 dropped over 3%, its largest decline since Dec. 18.
Meta projects its total expenses for 2025 to range between $114 billion and $119 billion. The company also expects capital expenditures for the year to be between $60 billion and $65 billion, primarily due to investments in generative AI and its core operations.
In the fourth-quarter Meta showed a strong performance, with revenue of $48.39 billion, surpassing analyst estimates of $47.03 billion.
Price Action: Meta’s stock saw a significant 2.29% increase in after-hours trading, reaching $692. During regular hours on Wednesday, it closed at $676.49, marking a 0.32% gain, as per Benzinga Pro data.
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