Meta Blends Storefront Ambitions with Workforce Training as AI Costs Surge Past $145 Billion

Meta is taking an unusually hands-on approach to supporting its massive artificial intelligence buildout, combining a physical retail expansion with a new training academy aimed at solving a critical bottleneck: finding enough workers to construct its sprawling data centers.

The company’s capital expenditure forecast for the current year has already been ratcheted up to between $125 billion and $145 billion, a figure that includes higher prices for components and additional server farms. That eye-watering sum is being financed by a still-booming advertising business — quarterly revenue jumped 33% to more than $56 billion, while operating income rose 30%. But on Wall Street, the spending trajectory is causing unease. Meta’s stock closed Monday at €507.70, down more than 8% since the start of the year and trading well below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The shares are now more than 25% off the record highs struck last summer.

To help absorb that investment, Meta is turning to brick-and-mortar retail. By the end of 2026, the company plans to open roughly 80-square-meter “Meta Lab” experience zones inside more than 50 Best Buy stores across North America. Shoppers can test the full hardware lineup — including Ray-Ban smart glasses and Quest VR headsets — and use smart mirrors to virtually try on different eyewear models. The logic is straightforward: more than half of Best Buy’s customers want to see AI glasses in person before buying.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Meta?

On the workforce side, Meta is investing $115 million in its new America’s Workforce Academy, a free training program that promises participants a job guarantee after completion. The academy, run in partnership with real estate services firm CBRE, will launch pilot programs in four states next year, including Texas and Ohio. After a safety course and five weeks of practical training, graduates can expect to work on building and maintaining Meta’s data centers. The company is also offering stipends and living expense subsidies for qualifying applicants.

The retail and training initiatives come as Meta seeks to manage investor anxiety over its capital spending. A recent Financial Times report suggested the company was exploring a multibillion-dollar equity offering to fund its AI push, though a spokesperson dismissed the speculation. The company’s capital outlays in the first quarter alone reached nearly $20 billion, and the full-year guidance range has been lifted by $10 billion from the previous forecast.

Analysts, on average, project annual earnings growth of 19% over the next several years. The retail push provides a concrete lever to boost hardware sales from the Reality Labs division, while the academy addresses the labor shortage that could otherwise slow the construction pipeline. As long as Meta’s core advertising engine keeps humming, the company can sustain its ambitious spending. But if that revenue stream falters, the $145 billion AI budget would quickly become a heavy burden.