Meta had $454.52 billion of non-cancelable contractual commitments at 30 September 2026, according to its quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on 22 October 2026. A year earlier, at 30 September 2025, its 10-Q gave the figure as $81.19 billion. By our arithmetic, that is 5.6 times as much in twelve months.
The new filing says the commitments “mostly relate to third-party cloud capacity arrangements and investments in servers and network infrastructure, energy service agreements for data centers, and consumer hardware products in Reality Labs”. It puts about $45.85 billion due in the rest of 2026 and $121.41 billion due in 2027. Separately, it lists about $355.73 billion of data centre and other leases that have not yet started.
Video explainer · META Q3 2026
Our explainer on Meta’s third quarter 2026, narrated from our published pieces on the results. It does not cover the 10-Q commitments note discussed here.
The key insight: As we read it, the number to watch is the amount already due in 2027: about $121.41 billion, up from about $22.17 billion in Meta’s year-end schedule, per its filings.
Update (22 Oct):Bloomberg reported that Meta now has about $825 billion in future spending commitments for leases and contracts, up from nearly $700 billion in July. Bloomberg describes the leases as off-balance-sheet and running to 2036.
Meta’s third-quarter 10-Q lists three items on top of the lease liabilities already on its balance sheet: $454.52 billion of non-cancelable contractual commitments, about $355.73 billion of leases that have not yet commenced, and contingent obligations to buy up to $14.72 billion of cloud capacity over five years. By our arithmetic those three add up to $824.97 billion.
The second-quarter 10-Q listed $349.31 billion of commitments and $278.99 billion of leases not yet commenced. It also disclosed about $68 billion of data centre leases signed in July. Those three add up to $696.30 billion by our arithmetic, which matches “nearly $700 billion”. We have not seen Bloomberg’s own breakdown, so we cannot confirm which line items it added for either total.
Comparing the two filings’ line items (whose descriptions changed slightly between quarters), from 30 June to 30 September non-cancelable commitments rose $105.21 billion, about 30%. Leases not yet commenced rose $76.74 billion, about 28%. Both are our arithmetic from the two filings.
A non-cancelable commitment is a contract Meta cannot walk away from without paying. The 10-Q describes the $454.52 billion as “comprising both short-term and long-term arrangements”. It gives two dated amounts: about $45.85 billion due in 2026 and about $121.41 billion due in 2027. It does not break down the rest by year.
The leases are counted on top. The filing says leases that have not yet commenced total about $355.73 billion, “consisting of data centers, energy-related infrastructure, colocations, and certain network infrastructure”, starting between the rest of 2026 and 2036 with terms of up to 30 years. Added together, the two come to about $810 billion, our arithmetic; Meta does not give that sum.
The filing lists two further items. Meta has “contingent obligations to purchase up to” $14.72 billion of cloud capacity over five years, which it says may be reduced if the provider resells the capacity. And it moved $10.80 billion of money market funds into restricted cash for escrow under “certain multi-year infrastructure purchase agreements”, funds it says are “expected to be released between 2028 and 2030 upon satisfying the underlying purchase obligations”.
Meta’s non-cancelable contractual commitments at five quarter-ends, from its Forms 10-Q (Q3 2025, Q1 to Q3 2026) and 10-K (FY2025): $81.19 billion at 30 September 2025 and $454.52 billion at 30 September 2026. The 5.6x multiple is our arithmetic.
Five Quarter-Ends, From Meta’s Filings
Quarter
Non-cancelable commitments
Leases not yet commenced
Filing
Q3 2025 end
$81.19B
$58.14B
10-Q, Q3 2025
FY2025 end
$131.05B
$103.77B
10-K, FY2025
Q1 2026 end
$237.67B
$182.88B
10-Q, Q1 2026
Q2 2026 end
$349.31B
$278.99B
10-Q, Q2 2026
Q3 2026 end
$454.52B
$355.73B
10-Q, Q3 2026
The amount due in 2027 has moved faster than the total. Meta’s 10-K schedule put about $22.17 billion due in 2027 at the end of 2025. The 2027 figure was about $47.65 billion in the first-quarter 10-Q, $81.65 billion in the second and $121.41 billion now, about 5.5 times the year-end figure by our arithmetic.
How It Compares With the Quarter
By our comparison, the amount due in 2027 alone is larger than Meta’s third-quarter revenue. Our results piece reported revenue of $64.60 billion and capital expenditures of $34.91 billion for the quarter, against $32.79 billion of cash from operations, which left free cash flow at negative $2.12 billion. Our Q3 analysis put the quarter’s figures in one place.
Connecting the Coverage
Our results piece and our Q3 analysis covered the release of 21 October 2026, including the narrowed 2026 capex range of $135 billion to $145 billion. Our margin piece reported a 20% operating margin after the $9.89 billion charge, and our headcount piece reported 66,775 employees at the end of September. This 10-Q, filed a day after the release, adds the contract side: what Meta has already agreed to pay for.
The Structural Read
As we read it, these figures show the build-out moving from plans into signed contracts: the 10-Q says the commitments mostly relate to cloud capacity, servers, network infrastructure and energy for data centres.
As we read it, leases are a second, separate layer: about $355.73 billion of data centre and other leases had not yet started at 30 September, per the filing, on top of the $454.52 billion.
As we read it, the escrow line shows Meta setting aside $10.80 billion of its own funds as restricted cash under certain multi-year infrastructure purchase agreements, the filing says, to be released as it meets the purchase obligations.
Meta, Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 September 2026
“These commitments mostly relate to third-party cloud capacity arrangements and investments in servers and network infrastructure, energy service agreements for data centers, and consumer hardware products in Reality Labs”
Three Implications
FOR META’S CASH FLOW Per its filings, about $121.41 billion is due in 2027 alone; our results piece reported negative $2.12 billion of free cash flow for the third quarter.
FOR CLOUD AND CHIP SUPPLIERS The 10-Q names third-party cloud capacity and servers among the main categories, and lists contingent obligations to buy up to $14.72 billion more cloud capacity.
FOR ENERGY PROVIDERS The filing lists energy service agreements for data centres among the commitments, alongside clean energy contracts that it says set no fixed volume.
The framework’s sizing of the cycle: “The total cycle: $725B Big Four + $50B Oracle + $13B Apple + $60B Neoclouds + $80B China + $60B Sovereigns + $48B Other = ~$1.04 trillion in 2026 compute capex.”
As we read it, Meta’s commitments note is one disclosure of contracts behind its part of that spending; the note does not say how much of the $454.52 billion falls in 2026 capex. The framework was published in May 2026 and does not discuss this filing.
What Is Not Established
The 10-Q does not split the $454.52 billion by supplier or between cloud capacity, servers, energy and Reality Labs hardware, and it gives no year-by-year amounts after 2027. It does not say which cloud providers the capacity contracts are with. The roughly $810 billion figure is our sum of two items Meta reports separately.
Business Engineer Framework
The AI Capex Map & The State of AI Hyperscalers
A Business Engineer read on the trillion-dollar compute build-out by Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Meta, and who underwrites it.
Per its 10-Q, Meta’s non-cancelable commitments rose from $81.19 billion to $454.52 billion in a year, with about $121.41 billion due in 2027, and it has about $355.73 billion more in leases yet to start. The filing describes most of it as cloud capacity, servers, network infrastructure and energy for data centres.
A note on sourcing. The commitment and lease figures come from Meta’s Forms 10-Q for the third quarter of 2025 and the first three quarters of 2026, and its Form 10-K for 2025, all filed with the SEC. Third-quarter revenue, capex and cash-flow figures are from our earlier coverage of Meta’s results release of 21 October 2026. The 22 October Update also cites Bloomberg’s report of about $825 billion in future spending commitments; that total and its “nearly $700 billion” July comparison are Bloomberg’s. Quotations come from the 10-Q, except “nearly $700 billion”, which is Bloomberg’s. Figures marked “our arithmetic” or “our comparison” are ours. We did not contact Meta. Nothing here is financial or investment advice.
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.
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