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WSJ Tech News Briefing · Friday, July 31, 2026

Meta's AI Spending Tied to Debt and Off-Balance Sheet Obligations

Meta's significant AI infrastructure spending is being funded through a combination of its advertising business, substantial debt, and off-balance sheet obligations. The company's debt has grown to over $80 billion since 2022.

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The tape

3 quotes
But they also are taking on lots of debt. They have a lot more obligations than they had in the past. They basically had no debt if you believe it before 2022, and now they have over $80 billion dollars of debt.
They also have a lot of off balance sheet obligations that aren't even included in their financial statements. They're doing these huge data center projects in Louisiana and Texas.
From the ad business, that throws off a ton of money, but they're also borrowing tons of money, they're issuing a lot of bonds.
Heard on WSJ Tech News Briefing — “Meta’s AI Spending Starts to Spook Investors, published Friday, July 31, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
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