• Mark Zuckerberg says it's too soon to gauge DeepSeek's impact on Meta's AI spending.
• DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, says it can build powerful models at a fraction of US costs.
• Zuckerberg calls for an open-source AI standard that is "American."

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, says it's too soon to tell what kind of impact DeepSeek will have on the company's AI spending.

During Meta's earnings call on Wednesday, Zuckerberg was asked by an analyst how DeepSeek — the Chinese AI startup that sent Silicon Valley into a tailspin by building powerful models at a reported fraction of the cost — will impact Meta's own investments in AI.

"They have advances that we will hope to implement in our systems, and that's part of the nature of how this works, whether it's a Chinese competitor or not," Zuckerberg said, adding DeepSeek had done "a number of novel things" that Meta is "still digesting."

But he said that probably won't change how Meta is investing in AI, at least for now.

"It's probably too early to really have a strong opinion on what this means for the trajectory around infrastructure and capex and things like that," Zuckerberg said.

Zuck says major AI infrastructure will still be needed

Meta and other US tech companies have recently faced questions on when their heavy investments on AI would start paying off. That scrutiny hit new levels this month when DeepSeek said it trained its AI models for a fraction of the cost that its US rivals spent, causing some tech stocks to tumble.

Last week, Zuckerberg said Meta planned to spend between $60 billion to $65 billion in capital investments in 2025.

During the earnings call on Wednesday, he defended those investments, saying that while the use of Meta's AI computing infrastructure could change, the need for it will not disappear.

"If anything, some of the recent news has only strengthened our conviction that this is the right thing for us to be focused on," he said, adding: "At this point, I would bet that the ability to build out that kind of infrastructure is going to be a major advantage for both the quality of the service and being able to serve the scale that we want to."

Open source, but American

On the earnings call, Zuckerberg also reaffirmed his commitment to open-source AI with a notable caveat: It should follow American standards.

"There's going to be an open-source standard globally, and I think for our own national advantage, it's important that it's an American standard," Zuckerberg said. "We take that seriously, and we want to build the AI system that people around the world are using."

Earlier in the call, he highlighted a shift in the relationship between Big Tech and Washington, pointing to a more supportive US administration that backs American companies in the global AI race.

"We now have a US administration that is proud of our leading companies, prioritizes American technology winning, and that will defend our values and interests abroad," he said. "I am optimistic about the progress and innovation that this can unlock."

Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist, previously said that the lesson to take away from DeepSeek's success wasn't that China's AI is "surpassing the US," but rather that "open source models are surpassing proprietary ones."

• Mark Zuckerberg praised Sheryl Sandberg in a Threads post on Friday.
• He also denied a report that said he blamed Sandberg for an inclusivity program at Facebook.
• Meta recently said it was rolling back its DEI initiatives.

Mark Zuckerberg praised former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg on Friday and denied reporting that said he had blamed her for an inclusivity program at the company.

"Sheryl did amazing work at Meta and will forever be a legend in the industry. She built one of the greatest businesses of all time and taught me much of what I know," Zuckerberg said in a post on Threads.

The post was sent in response to another user who shared a Business Insider article from last year with the headline, "Mark Zuckerberg jokes that Sheryl Sandberg raised him 'like a parent.'" The user said it "didn't age well."

Sandberg responded in a Threads post: "Thank you, @zuck. I will always be grateful for the many years we spent building a great business together — and for your friendship that got me through some of the hardest times of my life and continues to this day."

Representatives for Sandberg declined to comment when reached by BI. Neither Meta nor Zuckerberg responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

In a Threads post sent a few hours later, Zuckerberg wrote: "I answered a question about where the phrase 'bring your whole self to work' came from, and now there's a whole bogus narrative saying I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of stuff that I never did and never will."

The quote "bring your whole self to work" has previously been attributed to Sandberg, who has pushed for women's empowerment in the workplace and wrote the book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

Zuckerberg appeared to be referencing a New York Times report published Thursday that described a meeting between the Meta CEO and Stephen Miller, an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, at Mar-a-Lago late last year.

The Times said Miller told Zuckerberg Trump would target DEI culture, including at companies like Meta. Zuckerberg assured Miller he would not stand in Trump's way, the Times reported, citing three unnamed sources.

The outlet also reported that one source said Zuckerberg blamed Sandberg for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook during the same meeting.

The reporting was met with some backlash online and support for Sandberg, who was sometimes referred to as the "adult in the room" at Facebook while she was there.

Zuckerberg appears to be reshaping Meta ahead of the incoming Trump administration. Meta told employees last week it was rolling back its DEI programs in addition to ending the use of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a community notes system.

During an appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast last week, Zuckerberg said "masculine energy" was needed in the workplace.

"Masculine energy, I think, is good, and obviously society has plenty of that, but I think that corporate culture was really trying to get away from it," he said in an interview on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. "It's like you want feminine energy; you want masculine energy."

January 17, 2025: This story has been updated to include a post from Mark Zuckerberg denying reporting that he blamed  Sheryl Sandberg.