Meta Lifts 2026 Capex to $145B, Shares Slide 6%
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Meta Platforms raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, up from its prior $115 billion to $135 billion guidance, sending shares down more than 6% in extended trading.
- Meta warned of possible 'material loss' from mounting youth social media litigation, including a landmark New Mexico trial and a California case expected to test claims central to nearly 2,000 similar school district lawsuits.
- Meta reported its first-ever quarterly decline in Daily Active People, attributing it to internet disruptions in Iran and WhatsApp restrictions in Russia, though DAP still grew 4% year-over-year to 3.56 billion.
- CFO Susan Li confirmed May layoffs with further cuts planned for the second half, while Meta installs new tracking software on U.S. employees' computers to capture mouse movements, clicks, and keystrokes for AI model training.
- Meta reported Q1 revenue of $56.31 billion, beating the LSEG-compiled analyst estimate of $55.45 billion, though D.A. Davidson's Gil Luria said the results 'met expectations but failed to impress' relative to stronger Alphabet results posted the same day.
- Hargreaves Lansdown's Matt Britzman argued the higher capex spooked investors but is likely overblown, reflecting pricier memory components rather than a shift in Meta's investment plan.
Why it matters: Meta's capex is now growing faster than its revenue, and **Hargreaves Lansdown** says the jump reflects memory prices, not new ambition — yet the market still dumped the stock. With thousands of youth-safety lawsuits threatening a 'material loss,' a rare user decline, and **Alphabet** outshining it on the same day, Zuckerberg is betting AI-driven productivity can justify the spend before the next wave of trials.
