Meta just bumped its 2026 capex forecast up to as much as $145 billion for the AI boom—and investors flinched

Meta Platforms is splashing some serious cash on AI infrastructure, and investors have flinched. 

The company reported first quarter 2026 earnings results on Wednesday and raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $125 billion to $145 billion, up from a previous range of $115 billion to $135 billion. Meta told investors the boost was the result of higher prices for components and “additional data center costs to support future-year capacity.” 

Last year, Meta spent $72.2 billion on capex, up roughly $30 billion from the year before. The company is now guiding to nearly double what it spent in 2025, and more than it spent in 2025 and 2024 combined.

In after-hours trading, the stock tumbled more than 6% as a result of the jump in capex guidance. In contrast, Alphabet and Amazon—which are also spending enormous sums on AI infrastructure buildout, and which both announced earnings on Wednesday—saw their share prices rise after hours, in part because they both reported AI-related growth in their massive cloud-services businesses.

Asked about ROI, Zuckerberg says it’s ‘a very technical question’

Zuckerberg pointed to “memory pricing” as a driver of the higher costs and he attempted to soothe investors by explaining how he expects the spending plan to pan out.  

“Every sign that we’re seeing in our own work and across the industry gives us confidence in this investment,” said Zuckerberg. “That said, we are very focused on increasing the efficiency of our investments, and as part of that, we are rolling out more than one gigawatt of our own custom silicon that we’re developing with Broadcom........

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