Meta would be able to use a lot of the compute capacity they are building in the core business for the next three years, Susan Li said
In the “Cheeky Pint” podcast, Meta’s CFO Susan Li said that if the compute capacity that they are building will be less than the computed needed for inference, they would be able to use a large part of it in the core business and where they expect the core business to be in the next three years (min 19:00).
"To some extent, we still use a lot of this compute capacity in our core business and where we expect our core business to be three years from now. Frankly, we use more compute capacity in our core business. But this expansion is not infinite, right? The real question is, what happens if two years from now you have built so much compute capacity that you can’t foresee that the fallback plan can provide a reasonable ROI if the main project doesn’t come true? I think this is a question that all of us will learn in the next few years, " she said.
She said that the company’s focus is free cash flow (min 17:00). Li said she had to replace the “EBITDA hat” given to her by Zuckerberg with “free cash flow hat” because she realized that depreciation is becoming an important metric in their business. She also mentioned that she always questions Zuckerberg’s bets when they are budgeting to ensure that they can deliver the best ROI (min 9:00).
Li pointed out that Zuckerberg is good at giving feedback (timely, direct and respectful feedback) (min 6:00).
Assessment
I have often liked that Meta has a strong back up plan in case they won’t need all the compute capacity they are building. It’s also good to see Li having the interests of investors at heart, ensuring that Zuckerberg doesn’t get overly excited in so many bets.
