💰 Trump Reveals Meta's $50B Plan

Plus $85T infrastructure demand and $300M no-code bet

January 22, 2026

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Reading time: 5 minutes

🗞️In this edition

  • Trump Shows Map of Meta Data Center Covering Manhattan

  • Nvidia CEO Says AI Is Largest Infrastructure Boom in History

  • Emergent Raises $70M, Valuation Triples to $300M in 7 Months

  • In other AI news –

    • Meta's New AI Lab Delivers First Models Internally

    • Baidu AI Assistant Hits 200 Million Monthly Users

    • Yale AI Generates Chemistry Recipes Faster Than Humans

  • 4 must-try AI tools

Three announcements this week show where the money is really going.

Trump displayed a map of a data center covering Manhattan. Nvidia's CEO said AI needs $85 trillion more. And a seven-month-old startup just tripled its valuation building apps without developers.

Each story reveals something about scale versus reality. About infrastructure so large it needs presidential marketing. About spending predictions that dismiss bubble warnings. About betting hundreds of millions on technology that might eliminate entire professions.

The numbers keep getting bigger while the timeline for returns keeps getting longer.

This edition looks at what happens when everyone is convinced spending more is the only way forward.

What's happening:

President Trump praised Mark Zuckerberg at Davos on Wednesday, showing the crowd a map Zuckerberg gave him. The map showed Meta's proposed AI data center overlaid on Manhattan.

"It was basically the size of Manhattan," Trump said. "It was miles long, miles wide, and very high. It literally covered most of the island."

The $50 billion project is likely Meta's Hyperion data center in Louisiana, set to open in 2030. Trump compared it to his real estate days: "If you spend $500 million, you can build a good shopping center. But how do you spend $50 billion?"

Why this is important:

Trump showing the map at Davos makes Meta's spending public. The president is displaying Zuckerberg's plans to global leaders.

The Manhattan comparison makes the scale clear. Everyone understands how big Manhattan is, that's the point.

$50 billion for one facility changes what's normal infrastructure spending. Meta is transitioning from social media company to AI infrastructure giant.

Meta is building for AI use cases that don't exist yet. That's billions bet on what AI might do by 2030, not what it does today.

Comments from the editor:

Zuckerberg gave Trump the map to show. That's strategic, using the president as marketing.

The stock jump shows investors reward massive spending announcements. Markets believe whoever builds the most capacity wins.

The 2030 date is far away. If this fails, Meta spends years and $100+ billion before anyone knows it doesn't work.

Trump said it covered "most of the island." Hyperion is big, but details get bigger when presidents tell the story.

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What's happening:

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the World Economic Forum at Davos on Wednesday that AI is triggering "the largest infrastructure buildout in human history."

Huang dismissed bubble fears despite trillions being spent. He said AI is a "five-layer cake" that needs energy, chips, data centers, cloud infrastructure, and applications. Every layer must be built and operated.

He estimates $85 trillion will be spent over the next 15 years on AI infrastructure. That includes data centers, chip factories, and what he calls "AI factories."

The buildout is creating jobs for electricians, plumbers, construction workers, and network technicians. Huang said AI won't destroy jobs but will increase demand in fields like radiology and nursing by handling administrative work.

Why this is important:

The CEO of the world's most valuable AI company is saying $85 trillion needs to be spent. That's not a warning about bubbles, that's justifying continued massive investment.

Huang's "five-layer cake" framing makes every part of the spending look necessary. Energy, chips, data centers, all essential. That means nobody can cut back without falling behind.

The job creation angle is strategic messaging. He's countering fears about AI replacing workers by highlighting blue-collar demand. But administrative work getting automated still means fewer administrative jobs.

Dismissing bubble concerns while being the main beneficiary matters. Nvidia sells the chips everyone is buying. Of course Huang says keep spending.

Emergent Raises $70M, Valuation Triples to $300M in 7 Months

What's happening:

Emergent raised $70 million in Series B funding led by Khosla Ventures and SoftBank. The round values the AI software creation startup at $300 million, triple its valuation from three months ago.

The company lets anyone build apps using natural language instead of code. It hit $50 million in annual revenue within seven months of launch and aims for $100 million by April 2026.

Emergent has 5 million users across 190 countries. The platform builds production-ready web and mobile apps using AI agents that design, code, test, and deploy without human developers.

The $70 million brings total funding to $100 million in seven months. Google's AI Futures Fund also backed the company recently.

Why this is important:

Growing from $100,000 to $50 million in revenue in seven months is wild. That's 500x growth. Either demand is massive or the numbers won't hold.

Khosla and SoftBank betting this big means they think coding dies as a skill requirement. If AI can build apps from plain English, why hire developers?

The valuation tripling in three months shows investor hype, not proven business. $300 million for a seven-month-old company with no profit history is speculation.

For developers, this is an existential threat. If Emergent works, entry-level coding jobs disappear first. Then mid-level. Eventually, only architects reviewing AI output remain.

  • Meta's New AI Lab Delivers First Models Internally – Six months after launching with massive talent raids, Meta Superintelligence Labs produced "Avocado" and "Mango" models that are "very good" but still need work before anyone outside the company can use them.

  • Baidu AI Assistant Hits 200 Million Monthly Users – China's search giant reached the milestone by embedding its Ernie chatbot directly into the app everyone already uses, while ChatGPT has 810 million and Alibaba just hit 100 million two months after launch.

  • Yale AI Generates Chemistry Recipes Faster Than Humans – The MOSAIC platform uses 2,498 specialized AI experts to create lab protocols for molecules that don't exist yet, outperforming single large models by tapping thousands of distinct reaction niches.

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The scale of the bets keeps accelerating.

Data centers the size of Manhattan. $85 trillion over 15 years. Valuations tripling in months for companies barely out of the gate.

These aren't cautious moves. They're all-in commitments based on assumptions about what AI will become, not what it is today.

What matters now is whether the spending creates value before the questions about returns get too loud to ignore. Or whether we're watching the buildup phase of something that eventually needs to justify itself.

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