S&P Global Ratings revised Meta Platforms’ outlook to negative from stable on Friday, affirming the AA- issuer credit rating, and cited significant uncertainty around the company’s capital spending and free operating cash flow as it pours money into chips and data centres. Meta last week guided full year capital expenditure to between $135 billion and $145 billion after reporting a third quarter free cash flow deficit of $2.12 billion, and S&P now forecasts free operating cash flow deficits of $39 billion in 2026 and $71 billion in 2027, warning that elevated spending could keep the measure negative beyond 2028 and push leverage above 1.0 times as early as 2027, its threshold for the AA- rating. “Given the lack of clarity around the company’s future capex and its very ambitious multi-year AI investment plans, we are less certain that it will curtail its spending as previously anticipated,” S&P said.
S&P cuts Meta outlook to negative on AI spending
S&P Global Ratings revised Meta Platforms' outlook to negative from stable on Friday, affirming the AA- rating, citing significant uncertainty around the company's capital spending and free operating cash flow, which it now sees in deficit by $39 billion in 2026 and $71 billion in 2027.
Why it matters: Meta is the first of the big AI builders to draw a negative outlook from S&P on the spending wave, and the agency's 1.0 times leverage threshold for the AA- rating puts a clock on how long the deficits can run before funding costs follow.
Data as of S&P Global Ratings action of October 30, 2026, as reported the same day by Reuters and CNBC; S&P's own release sits behind its ratings portal and was not retrieved in this run, so the figures are the wires' reporting of the agency's statement. Developing item.
Sources
- Meta outlook revised to negative by S&P on cash flow and capex concerns - CNBC - 2026-10-30
- S&P Global revises Meta's outlook to 'negative' on AI spending, cash flow concerns - Reuters - 2026-10-30