Investors are less than thrilled with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to invest heavily in AI, especially with no clear plan to profitability.

According to The Information, Zuckerberg warned investors that the company is entering a new “investment cycle.” Investors did not take the news well, with the stock dropping 16% following Zuckerberg’s comments. Much of the issue stems from the fact that there is no clear path to generating revenue from AI for Meta, unlike Google or Microsoft.

Investors are having flashbacks to Zuckerberg’s metaverse obsession, and that the billions that has already cost the company. Brad Gerstner, Altimeter Capital CEO and a major Meta investor, called on the company to scale back its $10-$15 billion per year investment in the metaverse.

The company has announced investments of $10–15B per year into a metaverse project that largely includes AR / VR / immersive 3D / Horizon World and that it may take 10 years to yield results,” Gerstner wrote at the time. “An estimated $100B+ investment in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards.”

Much of the concern then was that there was no clear path to profitability for the metaverse, making it difficult to justify the gargantuan investment Meta was making. It became even more difficult as the company engaged in mass layoffs while still sinking that much money in the metaverse.

With Zuckerberg and company now pivoting to something new, it leaves one to wonder if the metaverse has lost its shine in Zuckerberg’s eye and AI is now the shining new thing, or if the company will be investing billions in two separate initiatives with no clear path to profitability in sight for either.