The Meta Cash and Votes Checklist

01 Cash in, cash out

Free cash flow is basically the money a company's business brings in, minus what it spends building things like data centers. Profit is what the books show. Cash is what's actually left after paying for the buildings and machines.

Line, Q3 2026 (July to September) Number What it means

Cash from the business (operating cash flow) $32.79 billion Cash in

Data centers and servers (capital expenditures) $34.91 billion Cash out

Free cash flow Minus $2.12 billion The gap. A year earlier: plus $10.6 billion

Net income (profit) $9,860 million What the books show

Free cash flow, January to September Still positive One negative quarter, not a negative year

Cash and investments, September 30 $82.45 billion Not running out of money

Why it matters. According to 24/7 Wall St, going through Meta's own numbers, it's the first negative quarter since 2012, the year Facebook went public. Meta expects to spend up to $145 billion on data centers and servers in 2026 and has given no number for 2027.

02 What's already signed

Meta's quarterly filing lists money it has already agreed to pay. Most of it hasn't started yet, so it isn't in this quarter's cash out.

Commitment Amount

Leases for data centers and electricity, not started yet $355.73 billion

Other contracts it's legally bound to pay (servers, cloud capacity, energy) $454.52 billion

Renting computing power from other companies Up to $15 billion

All together (Bloomberg reported the same figure) About $825 billion

Contracts due in 2027 alone About $121 billion

One more line: from January to September, Meta didn't buy back a single share. Buybacks are how big companies hand cash back to shareholders, and they're usually the first thing to stop when cash gets tight.

03 Who controls what

Mark Zuckerberg owns about 13% of what Meta is worth but controls about 61% of the votes, through a special class of shares he holds. Every time Meta issues normal shares to raise money, his slice of the vote gets a little thinner. The new Class C shares can't vote at all.

The deal. Every shareholder gets one Class C share for each share they hold, once the change takes effect on January 19, 2027. Meta says the price should adjust as if every share were cut in two. The ask. Zuckerberg asked for twenty Class C shares for every share. The independent committee called that excessive. The limits. He can sell only 20% of his new shares freely. For the rest, each one he sells means giving up one share that votes. What they're for. Meta lists capital raising, employee compensation and acquisitions, without shrinking the voting power of existing shares. It expects to sell Class C shares from time to time.

04 The checklist

When Meta reports again, check these three before the headline revenue number.

Cash in. Cash from the business. In Q3 2026: $32.79 billion.

Cash out. Spending on data centers and servers. In Q3 2026: $34.91 billion. Bigger than cash in means free cash flow below zero.

What's already signed. Leases and contracts in the quarterly filing. This quarter: about $825 billion, $121 billion of it due in 2027.

If you advertise on Meta. Put what you pay for each lead or sale next to the 14% rise in Meta's price per ad. If your costs climb faster than your results, test another channel before your budget renews.

My Meta report read

Quarter: [Q]
Cash in (operating cash flow): [$]
Cash out (capital expenditures): [$]
Free cash flow: [$] Up or down from last quarter? [UP / DOWN]
Already signed (leases + contracts): [$]
Spending outlook for next year given? [YES / NO] Number: [$]
Class C shares sold this quarter? [YES / NO] How many: [N]
My cost per lead or sale vs last quarter: [%]

Dates to watch: January 19, 2027, when the Class C change takes effect, and 2027 itself, when $121 billion of contracts come due.

Sources

Meta: Third Quarter 2026 Results and the new Class C stock (Exhibit 99.1, October 21, 2026) Meta: Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 Meta: Preliminary Information Statement on the Class C recapitalization Meta: Founder Alignment Agreement (Exhibit 10.1) 24/7 Wall St: Meta burned cash for the first time since its IPO

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