Meta Plans Notable 2026 Capital Expenditure Growth for AI Infrastructure

Meta Platforms is forecasting a significant increase in capital expenditures for 2026, driven primarily by investments in AI infrastructure, data centers, and cloud services to support its ambition toward superintelligence. The company reported strong revenue growth in Q3 2025 but faced pressure on margins due to a rise in costs and a large one-time charge related to President Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill.' Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized an aggressive front-loading strategy in building compute capacity to prepare for optimistic AI timelines, with excess capacity to be used to accelerate core business if superintelligence takes longer. Instagram has reached 3 billion monthly active users, with over a billion users engaging with Meta AI monthly, and video usage on Instagram up more than 30% year-over-year, signaling strong user engagement. Similarly, Alphabet’s parent company Google announced a "significant increase" in capital spending for 2026, with plans to invest heavily in AI infrastructure to meet growing demand, particularly in cloud services, projecting 2025 capital expenditures between $91 billion and $93 billion. Both Meta and Alphabet are responding to heightened demand for AI compute capacity, underscoring a broader industry trend of ramping up infrastructure investments to support AI-driven growth.