Meta, owner of Facebook, said on its Wednesday, April 29, quarterly earnings call that it now expects to spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures (Capex) in 2026, more than double last year’s $72 billion in capex. On its January 28 call, the company said it anticipated $115 billion in capex for 2026.
At RBN, we spend a lot of time digging into data centers, especially how these power‑hungry facilities will source electricity, and one of the biggest themes is how fast companies are racing to bring new sites online. Check out our newest Drill Down Report: Go Speed Racer Go on the data center build‑out.
Meta did not share how many data centers it will open this year, but it offered a glimpse into AI growth. More than half a billion users on each of Facebook and Instagram are now watching AI‑translated videos every week after Meta began auto‑translating and dubbing videos into a viewer’s local language.
Check out Louisiana Saturday Night, where we discussed how the state plans to ramp up its data center capacity, including the construction of the giant Richland Parish Data Center (see photo below).
