good morning. The chief financial officers of tech giants Meta and Microsoft issued similar messages during their earnings calls this week. The AI race will require unprecedented capital investment, but that spending will be disciplined, demand-driven, not reckless and ultimately profitable.
The companies urged investors to look past headline numbers and focus on occupancy, long-term economics and tangible revenue traction.
Meta: Big spending, signals of profit.
Meta’s CFO Susan Lee highlighted the trade-off between significant increases in infrastructure investment and profitability. Lee said on the company’s fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call that it expects 2026 operating profit in absolute dollars to be above 2025 levels, despite “meaningful increases” in spending and possible pressure on operating margins. She linked this increased investment to Meta’s long-term superintelligence roadmap and the expansion of data center capacity needed to support core AI workloads across advertising, rankings, and product development.
The company currently expects 2026 capital expenditures, including finance leases, to be approximately $115 billion to $135 billion, making it one of the largest single-year capital expenditures in the AI and hyperscaler world. Meta’s capital expenditures in 2025 were $72 billion. Mr. Li explained that this increase is an extension of Meta’s core business strategy. This means using AI to improve ad targeting, creative tools, and performance for advertisers, and to scale the infrastructure behind proven monetization use cases. Meta’s combination of AI-driven capex guidance and operating profit guarantees shows that spending is accelerating but remains disciplined rather than unlimited.
Meta’s credibility rests primarily on the strength of its advertising business, rather than its standalone AI service. The company said its revenue beat Wall Street expectations and that advertiser momentum will continue into early 2026. In the fourth quarter, Meta generated revenue of $59.89 billion, beating expectations, generating more than $200 billion in annual revenue and highlighting its cash-generating advertising engine to support infrastructure ramp-up.
Microsoft: Long-term investment in AI
Microsoft has reported unusually high capital expenditures related to AI and data center construction. The company’s most recent quarterly capital expenditures (approximately $37.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026) are large by historical standards and relative to typical technology sector capital expenditures, up from $34.9 billion in the previous quarter.
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said on Wednesday’s earnings call that the company has structured its investment strategy to focus on meeting sustained demand and optimizing production capacity over the life of its assets, rather than focusing on quarterly returns. Much of the spending is on short-lived assets such as GPUs and CPUs to support AI workloads, which could weigh on near-term cloud profits, but Hood noted that cloud demand is strong. Microsoft Cloud’s quarterly revenue exceeded $50 billion, and Azure grew approximately 39% year-over-year, supporting continued strategic investments.
Microsoft posted $81. Revenue for the quarter was $3 billion, up 17% from the same period a year ago and exceeding analyst expectations. However, as Fortune’s Alexei Oreskovic writes that investors were noticing that the Azure cloud business was growing at a slightly slower pace than last quarter (despite the fact that it was still growing at a healthy 39%).
In summary, Meta and Microsoft suggest that while AI-driven capital spending is accelerating, disciplined investment and a focus on monetization should support sustainable growth and profitability. Technology CFOs are tasked with clearly communicating their strategy to investors and bridging the gap between bold spending and long-term returns.
Thank you for reading. Have a nice weekend. be careful.
Cheryl estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
leader board
CFO changes this week:
Amanda L. Engles He has been promoted to EVP and CFO of CB Financial Services, Inc. (NASDAQGM: CBFV), a community bank holding company. Mr. Engles most recently served as the company’s interim CFO and assumed the role of SVP and CFO of the bank in February 2025. She joined Community Bank in March 2023 as SVP and Director of Accounting.
Patrick O’Connell He has been appointed CFO of OnePay, a consumer fintech. Mr. O’Connell currently serves as CFO of AMC Networks, where he leads global financial operations across a portfolio of streaming services and networks. Earlier in his career, he held senior strategy positions at CBS Corporation and Brands and spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs advising CEOs, CFOs and boards of directors on major financial transactions.
Ternille Davis He has been named interim CFO of The Trade Desk (NASDAQ:TTD), an independent advertising technology company, effective January 24th. The company is currently searching for a permanent successor. Mr. Davis currently serves as the company’s chief accounting officer and has been with The Trade Desk for nearly 11 years. She replaces Alex Keyal.
christopher papa has been appointed Vice President and CFO of Americold Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: COLD), a real estate investment trust specializing in temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics. Papa will join the company on February 23rd. He has nearly 40 years of experience in real estate, accounting, tax, investor relations, and corporate finance. Papa currently serves as EVP and CFO of CenterPoint Properties.
frank sluis Mr. Sluis has been appointed CFO of premium sportswear brand On Holding AG (NYSE: ONON), effective May 1. Mr. Sluis will replace Martin Hoffmann, who took on an expanded role as sole CEO last year and will continue to take on the role of CFO. Sluis has over 25 years of experience. Most recently, he served as CFO for Europe and Indonesia at food retail group Ahold Delhaize, a role he has held since 2021. Mr. Sluis previously held finance leadership positions at Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever.
Sardar Abu Bakr has been appointed CFO of NetSol Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTWK), a provider of software for the asset finance and leasing industry. Roger K. Almond, the company’s current chief financial officer, will remain with NetSol as chief accounting officer with responsibility for global accounting operations. Mr. Abu Bakr brings more than 20 years of international leadership experience. Most recently, he served as Vice President of New Business Ventures and M&A at Jazz, a subsidiary of VEON Group.
charles macon has been named CFO of On The Go, which operates airport dining and hospitality experiences at major airports in North America. Mr. Macon will oversee On the Go’s financial strategy and partner with the management team and ownership group. He brings more than 20 years of financial and operational leadership experience in multi-segment hospitality, consumer services and private equity backed businesses.
Patrice Launay Appointed CFO of specialty pharmaceutical company Altanine. Launay brings 20 years of experience in accounting, finance and public company leadership. He served as CFO of a Nasdaq-listed company, leading the company through its IPO, after which he returned to oversee SEC reporting and support in raising additional capital.
big deal
“2025 US IPO Activity Boosts Confidence for 2026” is a new report from EY. The momentum in IPO activity, especially in the second half of 2025, has created significant optimism for investors and potential issuers in 2026.
Strong interest in AI and defense technology companies is expected to continue, and the recovery in sector valuations over the past year could see the biotech sector return as a significant contributor, the report said.
Interest rate trends may be a determining factor, as can the level of sponsor-backed IPO activity. “As always, IPO hopefuls should be proactive in preparing their public companies, as external events such as those occurring in 2025 may impact the trading window,” EY recommends.
even deeper
here are four luck Weekend articles:
“If you subtract Tesla’s non-repeatable gains, the stock is more expensive than ever, now boasting a ‘core’ P/E of 632.” By Shawn Tully
“Apple’s stunning first-quarter results were a reminder of what makes the company so great and why it’s struggling in AI” by Alexei Oreskovic
“Fortune 500 CEOs no longer give their employees an A for their efforts. Now they want proof of impact.” By Claire Gillman
“Detroit’s top automaker wrote off $7.6 billion in its EV business and increased its market cap by the same amount. This is how GM does it” By Nick Lichtenberg
overheard
“There is a silver lining. Advances in personal health technologies, prevention strategies, and early detection and screening methods offer promising opportunities to intervene earlier and improve long-term outcomes.”
— Brooks Tingle, President and CEO of John Hancock, wrote: luck An opinion piece titled “CEO John Hancock: We all have a role to play in improving the health of Americans.”
