Meta said in a July 30 regulatory filing that lease commitments not yet reflected on its balance sheet had risen to US$279 billion as of June 30.

The figure was up 53% from US$183 billion in the prior period. Meta also said it added another US$68 billion of commitments in July that are expected to begin in 2027 and 2028.

Such leases typically remain off balance sheet until they begin because the service has not yet started under US GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Moody’s said the top five hyperscalers in the US had US$662 billion of similar not-yet-started obligations at the end of 2025.

Meta has separately said its 2026 capital expenditure would be US$115 billion to US$135 billion, including finance lease principal.

The company has tied returns from AI mainly to stronger ad performance, engagement, and related monetisation across its apps rather than cloud-computing sales.

The disclosure came after Meta gave a disappointing quarterly revenue forecast on July 29.

It added pressure on CEO Mark Zuckerberg to demonstrate returns from AI infrastructure spending, as the company does not typically sell computing capacity to customers.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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