Meta’s construction in progress reached $89,499 million on 30 September, up from $50,521 million on 31 December 2025, according to its quarterly report for the third quarter. By our arithmetic, that is a rise of $38,978 million, or 77%, in nine months.
The 10-Q says construction in progress “includes costs mostly related to construction of data centers, servers and network infrastructure”. By our arithmetic, it was 27% of Meta’s gross property and equipment on 30 September, against 22% at the end of 2025.
Business Pill · FINANCIAL CONDITIONS
A short explainer on financial conditions, the cost and availability of money for borrowers. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about Meta’s property and equipment.
The key insight:Meta’s construction in progress reached $89,499 million on 30 September, 27% of its gross property and equipment, up from 22% at the end of 2025, by our arithmetic.
Gross property and equipment was $326,489 million on 30 September, against $233,726 million on 31 December, the filing shows. Servers and network assets were $133,626 million, against $98,040 million.
Buildings were $68,223 million, against $55,568 million. Accumulated depreciation was $73,267 million, and property and equipment, net, was $253,222 million, against $176,400 million at the end of 2025.
Meta’s gross property and equipment on 31 December 2025 and 30 September 2026, split into construction in progress and the rest, from Note 6 of its third-quarter 10-Q. The percentages and the 77% rise are our arithmetic.
Depreciation Is Rising Too
The 10-Q says “Depreciation expense on property and equipment was $6.81 billion and $4.76 billion for the three months ended September 30, 2026 and 2025, respectively”. By our arithmetic, that is a 43% rise.
It adds that “our servers and network assets depreciation expense was $5.34 billion and $3.60 billion for the three months ended September 30, 2026 and 2025, respectively”. By our arithmetic, that is a 48% rise. For the nine months, depreciation was $18.49 billion, against $12.88 billion.
Scale Against Depreciation
By our arithmetic, construction in progress of $89,499 million is about 13 times Meta’s third-quarter depreciation of $6.81 billion. The 10-Q does not say when the projects in construction in progress will be completed or placed in service.
The filing says Meta anticipates “capital expenditures of approximately $135 billion to $145 billion in 2026 to support our AI efforts and core business”.
Some of It Moves Into Ventures
The 10-Q says that in July 2026 Meta “contributed $2.26 billion of assets previously classified as held for sale, mostly construction in progress and land in Texas, to a newly formed data center venture”. We covered those ventures in Meta’s venture exposure.
It also says Meta approved a plan to dispose of data center assets with a net carrying value of $1.89 billion, “consisting mostly of construction in progress and land”, through a contribution to a third party.
The Business Lever: Property Still Under Construction
S&P turned Meta’s outlook negative on 30 October, in our earlier coverage. The same 10-Q disclosed Meta’s new options. As we read Note 6, more than a quarter of Meta’s gross property was still under construction on 30 September.
The Structural Read
As we read Note 6, construction in progress grew faster than any other line of Meta’s property and equipment in the first nine months of 2026, by our arithmetic.
As we read it, third-quarter depreciation of $6.81 billion was 43% higher than a year earlier, by our arithmetic, while construction in progress stood at about 13 times that quarterly figure.
As we read it, part of the construction in progress is leaving the balance sheet: the 10-Q shows $2.26 billion contributed to a data center venture in July and a $1.89 billion disposal plan.
Meta Platforms, Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 September 2026, Note 6
“Construction in progress includes costs mostly related to construction of data centers, servers and network infrastructure.”
Three Implications
FOR META SHAREHOLDERS The 10-Q shows depreciation of $18.49 billion in the first nine months of 2026, against $12.88 billion a year earlier.
FOR CREDIT READERS The filing gives a 2026 capital expenditure range of approximately $135 billion to $145 billion.
FOR DATA CENTER PARTNERS The 10-Q records $2.26 billion of assets, mostly construction in progress and land in Texas, contributed to a newly formed data center venture in July 2026.
The framework says “It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing โ and the financial architecture is starting to invert.”
As we read it, Meta’s balance sheet is part of that architecture. The framework predates this 10-Q and does not discuss Meta’s construction in progress.
What Is Not Established
The 10-Q does not split construction in progress between buildings, servers and network gear, or give completion dates. It does not state the useful lives of the assets in this note. The ratios and multiples in this piece are our arithmetic, not Meta’s.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
Execution Fault Lines, Concentrated Demand, and Geopolitical Firewalls
This week’s issue: the AI build is not short of demand for its parts. It is short of cheap money, and its end revenue rests on a narrow base of large, often venture-funded buyers.
Meta’s construction in progress rose 77% in nine months to $89,499 million, by our arithmetic, and was 27% of its gross property and equipment on 30 September. Third-quarter depreciation rose 43% from a year earlier to $6.81 billion, by our arithmetic.
A note on sourcing. Every figure comes from Meta Platforms’ Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, mainly Note 6. We did not contact Meta. Figures labelled our arithmetic are our own.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
