Meta Platforms Has $420 Billion in Hidden Debt, and It’s Growing
Key Points
Meta Platforms spent $72 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, and could spend as much as $145 billion this year.
Among Meta's projects is its Hyperion data center being built in Louisiana.
Hyperion is being built under an innovative partnership with Blue Owl Capital that allows Meta to keep the project's debt off its balance sheet.
Artificial intelligence provides some great opportunities for many companies today. But it’s also a very expensive proposition that’s weighing down some of the biggest companies in the stock market. Meta Platforms(NASDAQ:META) is down 3% so far this year on fears that the company is taking on too much debt as it invests in AI infrastructure.
Meta’s balance sheet shows that the company has about $58.7 billion in long-term debt. But a new report indicates that the company’s debt load is much greater. Nikkei Asia reports that Meta Platforms has another $420 billion in off-balance-sheet debt. That number has grown substantially since 2022, the outlet reported.
What is off-balance-sheet debt?
Publicly traded companies are required to report the amount of debt they are incurring. But under accounting rules, equipment such as graphics processing units and servers that are under long-term contracts but not yet delivered is treated as an off-balance-sheet item. Meta and other companies disclose future debt in annotations on their financial statements.
When Meta’s GPUs are delivered and the data centers become operational, this hidden debt will begin to appear on the quarterly balance sheet.
Meta is one of five companies -- the others being Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle -- analyzed in the Nikkei Asia report. The five companies, all of which are making significant investments in AI infrastructure, have a collective $1.65 trillion in debt that is not reflected on the companies' balance sheets.
Meta is accelerating its spending on AI
Meta Platforms shows no appetite to slow its spending. The company spent $72 billion on capital expenditures in 2025 -- most of it related to AI -- and said in its first-quarter report that it would spend between $125 billion and $145 billion this year.
Its $50 billion Hyperion data center planned for Louisiana is getting a lot of attention. The center was first announced as a $27 billion project funded by Meta’s joint venture with Blue Owl Capital. But in June, Meta announced it was expanding the project from a 2-gigawatt center to 5 gigawatts of capacity as it seeks to build out enough AI infrastructure to meet demand.
Blue Owl and its partners are funding the construction, allowing the project to remain off Meta’s balance sheet. Blue Owl will own 80% of Hyperion, with Meta owning the remaining 20%.
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