Zuckerberg’s $14.3 billion stake in Scale AI as well as his willingness to throw cash at new hires underscores Meta’s interest in dominating the AI race. Those ambitions have coincided with actual revenue momentum, making it easier for Wall Street to buy into the vision and harder for analysts to question big spending plans.

Stocks edged higher in afternoon trading on Wall Street Thursday and are hovering around record highs amid rallies for big technology stocks. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and is just below the record high it set on Monday.