S&P Global shifts Meta's rating outlook to negative over cash flow worries
S&P Global Ratings moved its outlook on Meta Platforms to negative, pointing to heavy AI spending and shrinking free cash flow as key concerns.
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what happened
S&P Global Ratings has changed its outlook on Meta Platforms from stable to negative, Reuters reports. The agency pointed to large uncertainty about the company's capital spending and its free operating cash flow.
Meta has poured heavy money into advanced chips and data centers to compete with AI leaders, and that has eaten into its historically strong cash generation. S&P expects leverage could exceed 1.0x as early as 2027, the threshold for its 'AA-' rating, and sees negative cash flow possibly persisting beyond 2028.
why it matters
Last week Meta guided annual capex to $135-145 billion after a $2.12 billion free cash flow deficit in the third quarter. The company also plans to sell $97.5 billion in stock to fund its AI infrastructure. Shares barely moved after hours but had fallen more than 4% during the week, a fifth straight weekly loss.
market impact
Meta shares: negative rating outlook and weak cash flow add pressure on the stock
- Meta shares pressure down — rating outlook cut on weaker free cash flow and heavy AI spending
tags
instruments
sources
- S&P Global revises outlook on Meta to negative on cashflow concerns — Reuters, 30 October 2026 at 21:11 UTC
- S&P Global revises Meta's outlook to 'negative' on AI spending, cash flow concerns — Reuters, 30 October 2026 at 21:49 UTC
prepared by the newsmetry newsroom with ai assistance from the sources listed below. not investment advice.
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