Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has been making waves with a flurry of strategic announcements, and at least one analyst thinks the company's aggressive infrastructure moves could send shares soaring.
Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett maintained his Buy rating on Meta this Wednesday with a $1,117 price target. That implies a whopping 77% upside from where shares closed on January 13 at $631.09. Not exactly a tepid endorsement.
A Deliberate Strategy Takes Shape
Crockett sees Meta's recent headline-grabbing moves as part of a coherent strategy to support the company's data center buildout and artificial general intelligence ambitions. The company shifted toward nuclear power plans last Friday, launched a new "Meta Compute" initiative on Monday, and brought on Dina Powell McCormick as President and Vice Chairman in a newly created role.
Meanwhile, Meta is cutting 10% or more of jobs in its loss-making Reality Labs unit. And reports suggest the company may dramatically scale up production of its AR glasses with EssilorLuxottica because demand is running hot.
To Crockett, the nuclear push, the Compute initiative, and the Powell McCormick hire all make sense. He also sees the macro environment as supportive heading into Meta's fourth-quarter earnings, expected in late January or early February.
With Reality Labs headcount coming down and Meta already guiding investors to expect big spending increases in 2026, Crockett thinks the company has room to outperform if AI-driven revenue gains and AR glasses momentum continue building. In other words, Meta might beat the spending fears that have occasionally spooked investors.
Power Hungry: Meta's Infrastructure Buildout
The infrastructure plans are genuinely massive. According to a post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Compute will pursue "tens" of gigawatts of new capacity this decade, up from roughly 5 GW today. That includes the in-progress Hyperion and Prometheus mega-plants in Louisiana and Ohio, with "hundreds or more over time."
Crockett notes Meta's nuclear plans would give it an aspirational U.S. nuclear footprint of 7.7 GW over about a decade. Of that total, 3.3 GW is tied to higher-confidence power purchase agreements, while the rest depends on new development.
Meta may also look overseas for capacity, particularly in the Middle East, to sidestep U.S. permitting headaches and natural gas infrastructure constraints. Crockett flagged the Pax Silica agreement as a way to smooth chip exports for AI campuses located abroad.