Meta just told Wall Street it plans to spend somewhere between $125 billion and $145 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026. Wall Street responded by dumping the stock.
Shares fell as much as 12% in after-hours trading following the announcement, then closed roughly 8.6% lower the next day. That marked Meta’s worst single-day decline since October 2025.
The spending keeps climbing
The new capex guidance represents a meaningful jump from Meta’s prior estimate of $115 billion to $135 billion, which itself was already eye-watering. At the midpoint, the company is looking at roughly double what it spent in 2025.
CFO Susan Li pointed to escalating component costs and additional data-center expenses as the primary drivers behind the increase. CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his conviction that the AI strategy will pay off over the long term.
