Meta plans to spend $145 billion this year, more than every military budget except the U.S., China and Russia

The AI boom is less a marathon of innovation and more a spending sprint as companies pour billions to maintain their spot in the AI race. Now, Meta is spending on a scale that puts the company above most countries’ military budgets.

Meta plans to spend up to $145 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, a roughly 101% jump from the $72.2 billion it spent just one year earlier.  The company says the expenditures will fund its core business, with the higher component prices and additional data center costs adding to the increase. And according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AI will be a “significant portion” of that total spend. Reuters also reported that the increase is tied to the company’s computing infrastructure and cloud agreements. 

“As AI usage in our products and businesses continues to ramp, we continue to invest aggressively in infrastructure to meet the demand,” Zuckerberg said in Meta’s Q2 2026 earnings call. “We expect that a significant portion of our compute is going to go towards training our models, growing our core business and delivering personal........

© Fortune