Meta is betting its future on AI, committing up to $145 billion in 2026 capex to build massive compute capacity while partnering with BlackRock on a new one-gigawatt data center in Texas.
Meta raised its 2026 capex guidance to $130-145B and beat Q2 revenue estimates, positioning itself as a mega cloud operator despite lower free cash flow and compressed operating margins.
Meta announced a strategic venture with BlackRock to develop a one gigawatt data center in El Paso, Texas, giving BlackRock exposure to AI infrastructure.
Meta Platforms is aggressively pivoting toward becoming a mega cloud operator, raising its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to a range of $130 billion to $145 billion. While the massive infrastructure buildout has compressed operating margins to 31% and slashed free cash flow by 91%, the company beat Q2 revenue estimates with $60.8 billion in sales, driven by strong advertising growth and new AI-integrated business tools.
Meta's free cash flow fell 91% in Q2 due to the heavy capital expenditure required to build out its AI infrastructure, including massive investments in servers, data centers, and network capacity.