A business that wants to grow usually has to spend before it earns. A bakery buys a second oven before it sells the extra bread, and a shop chain fits out new stores months before the first customer walks in. For a while the money goes out long before the sales it is meant to bring come back.
That gap is hard to see from the outside. Headlines quote huge spending figures, while the profit a company reports can still look healthy, so it is easy to miss that the cash left over each quarter is shrinking. A reader is left unsure whether the company is building something valuable or simply running its bank balance down.
Two lines from a company's cash flow statement settle most of that question. Capital expenditure, usually shortened to capex, is the money spent on things that last for years, such as buildings and machines. Free cash flow is the cash the business still has after paying for them, and it is the money a company can hand back to its owners.
Meta Platforms is the clearest example of this in 2026, because its spending on artificial intelligence has grown far faster than its sales. On BloFin you can hold its stock as the METAX/USDT Spot pair or trade it with leverage through the METAUSDT Perpetual, and either way its spending plan is one of the biggest things you are betting on.
What is Meta's AI capex?
Meta's AI capex is the money Meta spends on data centers, servers and network equipment to train and run its AI models and the apps that use them. It came to $31.1 billion in the three months to June 30, 2026, and Meta expects $130 billion to $145 billion for all of 2026 (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
Meta reports one capex figure for the whole company, and it counts two kinds of payment in it. The bigger part is purchases of property and equipment, which came to $30.1 billion in the June quarter. The smaller part is $962 million of principal paid on finance leases, a way of paying for equipment in installments (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Meta does not split out an "AI" share. When it set its first 2026 range in January, though, it said the growth would come from its Meta Superintelligence Labs work and its core business (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
So when people say "Meta's AI capex", they mean that company-wide figure, because almost all of the growth in it is AI. Meta Superintelligence Labs is the group building Meta's most advanced models. Much of the hardware it runs on is bought from chip makers, though Meta also designs some of its own AI chips.
What the capacity is for matters as much as its size. Chief financial officer Susan Li covered this on the call that followed Meta's second-quarter results on July 29, 2026. She said Meta plans to use the capacity in its core apps, where large language models are improving how ads and posts are ranked. It will also feed newer AI products such as Muse Image, which helps advertisers make ads (source: Meta Q2 2026 follow-up call). She added that Meta generally believes capacity it can use in the near term is worth more than capacity further out.
Think of the spending as Meta buying the factory before it knows exactly how much it will sell. If the company itself is new to you, start with what Meta stock is and how its business makes money.
How capex turns into free cash flow
Capex is what stands between Meta's operating cash and its free cash flow. In the second quarter of 2026, operations brought in $31.9 billion and capex took $31.1 billion, which left $784 million, down from $8.5 billion a year earlier (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). The spending explains the fall.
Operating cash flow is the cash that the apps actually collected from advertisers, after paying staff, suppliers and taxes. It is close to profit, but it counts cash when it moves, so it leaves out accounting charges such as depreciation that involve no payment that quarter.
Free cash flow equals operating cash flow minus purchases of property and equipment and finance lease principal.
Run that sum over the last five quarters and the June 2026 figure stands out. Free cash flow climbed from $8.5 billion in the second quarter of 2025 to $10.6 billion in the third (source: Meta Q3 2025 results) and $14.1 billion in the fourth (source: Meta Q4 2025 results). It then eased to $12.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 (source: Meta Q1 2026 results).
Quarter | Operating cash flow | Capex | Free cash flow | Capex as a share of operating cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2 2025 | $25.6 billion | $17.0 billion | $8.5 billion | 66.6% |
Q3 2025 | $30.0 billion | $19.4 billion | $10.6 billion | 64.6% |
Q4 2025 | $36.2 billion | $22.1 billion | $14.1 billion | 61.1% |
Q1 2026 | $32.2 billion | $19.8 billion | $12.4 billion | 61.6% |
Q2 2026 | $31.9 billion | $31.1 billion | $0.8 billion | 97.5% |
Put the June quarters side by side and the cause is plain. Operating cash flow grew 24.7% in a year, which is strong for a company of Meta's size. Capex grew 82.7%, though, so it swallowed 97.5 cents of every dollar the business brought in. For four quarters before that, Meta kept a third or more of its operating cash after capex.
The number can also swing back, because capex arrives in uneven lumps as data centers are finished and filled with servers. One weak quarter does not show a trend, so the useful habit is to watch capex as a share of operating cash flow over several quarters. How the share price reacted on the day the June-quarter figures came out is covered in what moves Meta stock.
Meta's capex by year, 2023 to 2026
Meta's capex more than doubled in two years, from $28.1 billion in 2023 to $72.2 billion in 2025, and the 2026 range would roughly double it again. As a share of revenue, capex rose from 20.8% to 35.9%, worked out from Meta's results for 2024 (source: Meta Q4 2024 results) and 2025 (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
Year | Revenue | Capex | Capex as a share of revenue | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | $134.9 billion | $28.1 billion | 20.8% | $43.0 billion |
2024 | $164.5 billion | $39.2 billion | 23.8% | $52.1 billion |
2025 | $201.0 billion | $72.2 billion | 35.9% | $43.6 billion |
2026 | not yet reported | $130 billion to $145 billion (Meta's range) | not yet reported | not yet reported |
Free cash flow rose in 2024 even as capex grew, because operating cash flow rose by more than capex did. In 2025 capex jumped 84%, and free cash flow fell to $43.6 billion, barely above its 2023 level of $43.0 billion. The midpoint of the 2026 range, $137.5 billion, is 90% above 2025's spending.
Meta's range has also moved up, or narrowed toward the top, at every update since the start of 2025.
Date of update | Year covered | Meta's capex range |
|---|---|---|
January 29, 2025 | 2025 | $60 billion to $65 billion |
April 30, 2025 | 2025 | $64 billion to $72 billion |
July 30, 2025 | 2025 | $66 billion to $72 billion |
October 29, 2025 | 2025 | $70 billion to $72 billion |
January 28, 2026 | 2026 | $115 billion to $135 billion |
April 29, 2026 | 2026 | $125 billion to $145 billion |
July 29, 2026 | 2026 | $130 billion to $145 billion |
Meta sets each range in a results release, so the range has moved only on report days. The 2025 ranges came in January 2025 (source: Meta Q4 2024 results), April 2025 (source: Meta Q1 2025 results), July 2025 (source: Meta Q2 2025 results) and October 2025 (source: Meta Q3 2025 results). The first 2026 range came in January 2026 (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
When it raised the range in April, Meta pointed mainly to higher prices for components, the chips and memory inside its servers. Data center costs for capacity in later years played a smaller part (source: Meta Q1 2026 results). In July it lifted the bottom of the range and left the top unchanged (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
The range also tells you what the second half has to look like. Meta spent $50.9 billion in the first six months of 2026, so landing anywhere inside $130 billion to $145 billion means spending $79.1 billion to $94.1 billion from July to December. That is $39.5 billion to $47.0 billion a quarter, above the record $31.1 billion of the June quarter, worked out from Meta's own figures (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
Meta's 2027 capex and the third-quarter report
Meta has given no capex range for 2027 yet. Its third-quarter report, due after the close on October 21, 2026 (source: Meta Q3 2026 date announcement), is the next point where the 2026 range can move. Last year Meta firmed up its view of the next year in its third-quarter release, on October 29, 2025: capex dollar growth in 2026 would be "notably larger" than in 2025 (source: Meta Q3 2025 results).
The company has kept the subject in the news this month. On October 7, 2026, Meta published a conversation with its head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, about why data centers are central to building AI (source: Meta Newsroom).
Susan Li has already said that Meta is investing in capex in both 2026 and 2027. On how that spending is paid for, she said Meta will "have more to share as we go into '27" (source: Meta Q2 2026 follow-up call). So the report can carry two kinds of news at once: a new 2026 range, and a first word on 2027.
Four figures will tell you most of what the report says about spending. The first is the 2026 capex range, and whether it moves up, narrows or holds. The second is third-quarter capex itself, set against the $39.5 billion to $47.0 billion a quarter the range implies. The third is free cash flow, the result of the first two. The last is any comment on 2027. Meta's earnings explained walks through where each of these sits in the release.
Meta publishes its results after the 4PM ET close, and you can follow the reaction on the METAX/USDT Spot page or watch the perpetual's price and funding rate on the METAUSDT Perpetual page.
How depreciation turns capex into cost
Depreciation is how Meta spreads the cost of a server or a building across the years it expects to use it, so capex leaves Meta's bank account at once but reaches its profit slowly. Meta's depreciation and amortization charge was $6.4 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 46% in a year (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
The length of that spreading period is a judgment each company makes. Meta raised the estimated useful life of most of its servers and network equipment to 5.5 years from January 1, 2025 (source: Meta 2025 annual report). When it made the change, it said the longer life would cut its 2025 depreciation expense by about $2.9 billion (source: Meta Q4 2024 results).
A worked example shows why the choice matters. Say Meta buys $10 billion of servers. Spread over 5.5 years, that is about $1.8 billion of depreciation a year; spread over a shorter, illustrative 4 years, it would be $2.5 billion. The longer life adds roughly $0.7 billion a year to reported profit, while the cash paid for the servers is the same $10 billion either way.
That gap is the heart of a public critique. In a post on X in November 2025, investor Michael Burry estimated that large tech companies would understate depreciation by $176 billion between 2026 and 2028. For Meta, he estimated that reported profit would be 20.8% higher by 2028 as a result. Meta did not respond to Fortune's request for comment (source: Fortune). His figures are his own estimates, and auditors accept a range of useful lives, but the debate is a reason to read cash figures beside profit.
Free cash flow settles that argument for a reader, because it counts the cash paid for servers in the quarter it leaves, whatever useful life Meta picks. Profit tells you how the accounts spread the cost, and free cash flow tells you how much money is actually left.
How Meta pays for the build
Meta pays for most of its build with the cash its apps bring in, topped up with borrowing and with partners who fund data centers that Meta then leases. On July 29, 2026, Susan Li named operating cash flow as the main source of that funding, alongside investment-grade debt and partnerships (source: Meta Q2 2026 follow-up call).
The borrowing shows up in the cash flow statement. Meta raised $29.9 billion of long-term debt, net of costs, in the fourth quarter of 2025 (source: Meta Q4 2025 results) and another $24.9 billion in the second quarter of 2026. That took its long-term debt from $58.7 billion at the end of 2025 to $83.7 billion on June 30, 2026 (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
Partners carry part of the bill off Meta's own capex line. On July 28, 2026, Meta announced a venture with funds managed by BlackRock to build a 1-gigawatt data center campus in El Paso, Texas, with about $14 billion of development costs. BlackRock's funds own 80%, Meta keeps 20% and leases the whole campus, and Meta gives residual value guarantees of about $13 billion (source: Meta El Paso venture announcement).
A residual value guarantee is a promise to cover a shortfall if the campus is worth less than an agreed amount later on. The cost stays off Meta's capex line, but some of the risk stays with Meta. How Meta is financing the AI build covers these ventures, Meta's bonds and its sites in detail. Meta also rents computing power from cloud providers, a third route that shows up in operating costs, and Meta's compute deals explains what those contracts commit it to.
Meta has cut costs elsewhere too. It recorded $1.2 billion of severance in the second quarter of 2026 for a reduction in May that affected about 8,000 employees (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). The savings are small next to the spending, but they show that payroll, the second-largest source of Meta's expense growth after infrastructure, is being trimmed while the build goes on (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
What is left for shareholders
After capex, little cash was left for shareholders in the second quarter of 2026. Free cash flow was $784 million and dividends took $1.35 billion, a shortfall of $569 million. Meta also bought back no shares at all in the first half of 2026 (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
That is a sharp change. In 2024 Meta's free cash flow, after paying its dividend, still left $47.0 billion, and in 2025 it left $38.3 billion, worked out from Meta's annual results. Meta spent $30.1 billion buying back shares in 2024 and $26.2 billion in 2025 (source: Meta Q4 2025 results), so buybacks were the part of shareholder returns that gave way first.
The dividend gap in the June quarter is small next to the $90.3 billion of cash and marketable securities Meta held on June 30, 2026 (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). The more telling signal is the buyback pause, since buybacks are the payout a company can switch off quietly. Meta's dividend and buybacks covers the amounts, dates and the authorization still unused.
What Meta's spending means for METAX and METAUSDT holders
For a METAX or METAUSDT holder, Meta's spending matters most on the night it reports, since a new capex range can move the share sharply within hours. METAX can trade through that evening, because xStock markets on BloFin trade 24 hours a day on weekdays (source: BloFin xStocks risk disclosure).
The perpetual, by contrast, may accept only orders that reduce a position outside US trading hours (source: BloFin stock futures notice). METAX trading hours against Nasdaq sets out both clocks.
Spending also reaches holders through the dividend. Meta's dividend is paid out of the same cash that capex is eating into, and for METAX the issuer reinvests it into your token balance, as tokenized Meta (METAX) explains. The perpetual pays no dividend at all, since it is a contract on the price.
If you worry that a bigger spending plan could hurt the price, you can hedge a Meta holding with the perpetual by opening a short before the close and closing it once the news is priced. Trading Meta around earnings covers the timing of a results night step by step.
Looking to trade Meta around its next spending update? To get started, you'll need to first create a BloFin account, fund your account with cryptocurrency, and go to the METAX/USDT Spot trading page or the METAUSDT Perpetual trading page.
Frequently asked questions
How much cash and debt does Meta have?
In the first half of 2026 Meta's cash and marketable securities rose $8.7 billion while its long-term debt rose $24.9 billion, so new borrowing more than covered the growth in its cash pile. At the end of 2025 it held $81.6 billion of cash and securities against $58.7 billion of debt (source: Meta Q4 2025 results). By June 30, 2026 its cash and securities exceeded its long-term debt by about $6.6 billion, worked out from the second-quarter figures (source: Meta Q2 2026 results).
What is the difference between capex and operating expenses?
Operating expenses are costs used up within the year, such as salaries, marketing and cloud computing rented from other companies, and they cut profit right away. Capex buys assets that last several years, so it goes onto the balance sheet and reaches profit later as depreciation. Depreciation then becomes an operating expense. Meta expects total expenses of $165 billion to $169 billion in 2026 (source: Meta Q2 2026 results), and it has named infrastructure as the biggest driver of expense growth (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
Why does Meta include finance leases in its capex?
Meta counts finance lease principal in capex for a reason it states itself. In its words, the two payments together represent the property and equipment it needs to support its business, whether it buys or leases them (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Adding it keeps Meta's capex figure comparable whether equipment is bought outright or leased, and it means free cash flow falls when lease payments rise, which matches the cash actually leaving the business. Meta's free cash flow definition subtracts the same lease principal.
Did the 2025 US tax law change Meta's cash flow?
The 2025 tax law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, led Meta to record a one-time income tax charge of $15.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025 (source: Meta Q3 2025 results). The charge was non-cash, so it cut reported profit without any money leaving the company. Meta said it expects the law to bring a significant reduction in its US federal cash tax payments for the rest of 2025 and future years (source: Meta Q3 2025 results). The cash it paid in income taxes was $7.6 billion in 2025, down from $10.6 billion in 2024 (source: Meta Q4 2025 results).
How much does Meta spend on capex per day?
Meta's capex of $31.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026 works out to about $341.5 million a day across the quarter's 91 days (source: Meta Q2 2026 results). Across all of 2025, its $72.2 billion of capex came to about $197.8 million a day. The top of the 2026 range, $145 billion, would mean close to $400 million a day for the year.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. All facts independently verified. Primary sources include Meta's quarterly results releases from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2026, its 2025 annual report on Form 10-K, the transcript of its second quarter 2026 follow-up call, its El Paso venture announcement and the Meta Newsroom. Other sources include Fortune. BloFin's sources are its stock futures notice and its xStocks risk disclosure, current as of October 2026.
Nothing in this article constitutes financial advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell or hold Meta in any form. Meta raised its 2026 spending plan twice this year. A bigger range or weaker free cash flow in a results report can move the share, METAX and the METAUSDT Perpetual sharply within hours, often while Nasdaq's regular session is closed. A leveraged perpetual position can be liquidated in a move like that, and outside US trading hours it may accept only orders that reduce a position. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do your own research and consider your risk tolerance before you trade on BloFin.