Meta forecasts up to $145 billion in 2026 capital spending as it prepares a leadership handover that will put infrastructure vice president Dave Brown in charge after Santosh Janardhan leaves in early 2027.
Meta's third-quarter filing reported $34.91 billion in capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2026. The company cited AI investment and needs across its business in projecting its 2026 spending range. The filing did not link that outlook to Janardhan's departure.
Meta said Brown will succeed Janardhan as head of infrastructure. Janardhan also serves as co-head of engineering and joined Facebook in 2009. Brown's LinkedIn profile says he joined Meta earlier in 2026 after 19 years at Amazon.
Meta said Janardhan would move into an advisory role on Meta Compute. A staff memo obtained by Bloomberg identified him as chief technology officer of Meta Compute and did not state a reason for his departure.
In the memo, Janardhan described infrastructure as having moved beyond a supporting function to become a strategic asset for Meta. He said the next phase should help product teams work faster and wrote that it was “time to pass the baton.” The memo said he would stay through the first quarter of 2027 to support the handover.
