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

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is seen in the U.S. Capitol after a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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.