Meta discloses $825 billion in future spending commitments

Meta Platforms has agreed to spend about $825 billion in the future on leases and contracts, many of them tied to computing power and artificial intelligence infrastructure, Bloomberg reported from a company filing released Thursday, October 22. The figure is up from the nearly $700 billion in commitments Meta disclosed in July, according to TipRanks. It adds to a growing list of long-term obligations from a company that is already spending heavily to build AI capacity.bloomberg.com+1

What the Filing Shows

Operating and finance leases that are not yet on Meta's balance sheet total $355.7 billion. These include leases for data centers and energy infrastructure that begin between the rest of this year and 2036, Bloomberg said. As of September 30, Meta also had $454.5 billion in non-cancelable short- and long-term contracts. Many of those cover third-party cloud computing capacity, data center energy agreements and consumer hardware for its Reality Labs unit, GMT Eight reported.gmteight.com+1

The filing also says Meta must buy up to $14.7 billion of cloud computing capacity over five years. That amount could shrink if the cloud provider sells the capacity to other customers, according to Sina Finance. The disclosure covers commitments over many years, not spending in a single year.finance.sina.com.cn

Earnings Backdrop

The filing came a day after Meta reported its third-quarter results. Revenue rose 26% to $64.6 billion, and the company narrowed its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $135 billion to $145 billion, from $130 billion to $145 billion before, Meta's earnings release showed. Quarterly capital spending reached $34.91 billion. Free cash flow fell to a deficit of $2.12 billion, compared with a $10.63 billion surplus a year earlier, Seoul Economic Daily reported.investor.atmeta.com+1

Meta's board also approved a new class of publicly listed, non-voting Class C shares, which will take effect in January 2027. Each existing share will receive one new share through a stock dividend, which works like a two-for-one split, the company said. The new shares can be used to raise capital, pay employees and fund acquisitions, Investing.com reported.investing.com+1

Investor Reaction

Meta shares fell about 3% in premarket trading on Thursday as investors worried about pressure on free cash flow, TipRanks reported. The company ended the quarter with $82.4 billion in cash and marketable securities and $83.7 billion in debt, according to 24/7 Wall St. A Schedule 14C information statement Meta filed on October 21 said it expects to need to raise capital for its AI growth plans. Forecasts shown to a board committee pointed to a need for hundreds of billions of dollars over several years, MTN Consulting noted. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li told analysts that Meta has "no specific financing plans to announce at this time."tipranks.com+2