Meta CFO Susan Li on headcount vs. GPU allocation, “free cash flow” hats, and almost becoming a PM

Susan Li of Meta—the youngest chief financial officer of a Fortune 100 company—joins John Collison to talk about capital allocation, managing investors, and how Mark Zuckerberg has changed over the 17 years of working together.

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:20) Early education and career

(02:15) Lessons from Michael Grimes at Morgan Stanley

(03:12) Leadership traits and succession planning at Meta

(06:05) Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership and culture of feedback

(09:06) Financial forecasting and capital allocation

(14:18) ROI on Meta’s portfolio of bets

(15:05) Investor sentiment in 2022

(17:49) The story behind the “free cash flow” hats

(18:58) CapEx trends in the AI era

(21:48) A memorable earnings call

(24:16) Challenges of allocating compute vs headcount budgets 

(26:55) AI’s impact on productivity and operations