Meta’s infrastructure handover will keep infrastructure chief and engineering co-head Santosh Janardhan involved through the first quarter of 2027, as incoming infrastructure leader David Brown takes charge of work tied to the company’s AI expansion.
Janardhan outlined the arrangement in an internal memo CNBC obtained Wednesday, Nov. 11. He wrote that it was “time for Dave to take the lead” as Meta makes its next priority choices. Bloomberg News first reported the planned transition.
Brown joined Meta in July after serving as a senior vice president at Amazon Web Services. He will oversee infrastructure operations within Meta Compute. Dina Powell McCormick, Meta’s president and vice chairman, leads the initiative with technical leader Daniel Gross. Janardhan has worked at Meta since 2009, CNBC reported. A LinkedIn profile cited in EconoTimes’ earlier coverage lists 19 years at Amazon for Brown.
Meta had announced Brown as Janardhan’s successor and said Janardhan would move into an advisory role on Meta Compute. EconoTimes previously covered Meta’s succession plan.
CNBC linked the change to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s effort to expand Meta’s data-center footprint for AI, amid investor scrutiny of capital spending. The report said investors are also watching spending by other hyperscalers. Meta’s third-quarter earnings report projected capital expenditures of $135 billion to $145 billion in 2026; the company cited AI investment and needs across its business behind the outlook.
A third-quarter filing reported $34.91 billion in capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, for the three months ended Sept. 30. Meta also logged $2.12 billion in negative free cash flow. S&P Global Ratings cited the figure in late October when it changed the outlook on Meta’s AA- credit rating from stable to negative.
Janardhan is due to remain involved in the handover through the first quarter of 2027.
