2 months ago
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Patrick Sanders, The Motley Fool
Wed, July 22, 2026 astatine 11:06 AM CDT 4 min read
Artificial quality provides immoderate large opportunities for galore companies today. But it's besides a precise costly proposition that's weighing down immoderate of the biggest companies successful the banal market. Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is down 3% truthful acold this twelvemonth connected fears that the institution is taking connected excessively overmuch indebtedness arsenic it invests successful AI infrastructure.
Meta's equilibrium expanse shows that the institution has astir $58.7 cardinal successful semipermanent debt. But a caller study indicates that the company's indebtedness load is overmuch greater. Nikkei Asia reports that Meta Platforms has different $420 cardinal successful off-balance-sheet debt. That fig has grown substantially since 2022, the outlet reported.
Missed Nvidia successful 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" awesome flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the archetypal clip successful years, that aforesaid "Total Conviction" awesome is flashing for a institution 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »
Should investors beryllium acrophobic astir Meta Platforms' stock?
Image source: The Motley Fool.
What is off-balance-sheet debt?
Publicly traded companies are required to study the magnitude of indebtedness they are incurring. But nether accounting rules, instrumentality specified arsenic graphics processing units and servers that are nether semipermanent contracts but not yet delivered is treated arsenic an off-balance-sheet item. Meta and different companies disclose aboriginal indebtedness successful annotations connected their fiscal statements.
When Meta's GPUs are delivered and the information centers go operational, this hidden indebtedness volition statesman to look connected the quarterly equilibrium sheet.
Meta is 1 of 5 companies -- the others being Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle -- analyzed successful the Nikkei Asia report. The 5 companies, each of which are making important investments successful AI infrastructure, person a corporate $1.65 trillion successful indebtedness that is not reflected connected the companies' equilibrium sheets.
Meta is accelerating its spending connected AI
Meta Platforms shows nary appetite to dilatory its spending. The institution spent $72 cardinal connected superior expenditures successful 2025 -- astir of it related to AI -- and said successful its first-quarter study that it would walk betwixt $125 cardinal and $145 cardinal this year.
Its $50 cardinal Hyperion information halfway planned for Louisiana is getting a batch of attention. The halfway was archetypal announced arsenic a $27 cardinal task funded by Meta's associated task with Blue Owl Capital. But successful June, Meta announced it was expanding the task from a 2-gigawatt halfway to 5 gigawatts of capableness arsenic it seeks to physique retired capable AI infrastructure to conscionable demand.
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