Meta’s Future Commitments Hit $825B as CDS Reaches Record

Meta disclosed about $825 billion in future spending commitments as of the end of September, covering leases, cloud-computing contracts, data-center arrangements and other agreements, much of it tied to AI compute and infrastructure. The total rose from about $700 billion disclosed in July. Meta reported $355.7 billion in off-balance-sheet operating and finance leases, including data-center and energy-infrastructure leases extending through 2036, and $454.5 billion in non-cancelable short- and long-term contracts. It also committed to buy up to $14.7 billion of cloud-computing capacity over five years, although that amount could decline if providers sell capacity to other customers. On Thursday, Meta’s five-year credit default swap rose as much as 8.9 basis points to about 119.3 basis points, an intraday record for the contract, according to ICE Data Services. Its bond spreads versus U.S. Treasuries also widened. CDS prices for Oracle, Microsoft and Broadcom rose the same day, indicating broader concern around debt risk among AI-heavy technology companies. Meta had raised its full-year capital-expenditure plan in quarterly results and announced a new class of non-voting shares that could be used for future acquisitions and other spending. Unlike cloud providers that sell compute to external clients, Meta generally does not sell computing capacity externally, leaving its infrastructure commitments more directly dependent on its own returns from AI investment.