Meta’s $12 billion free cash flow contrasts with CoreWeave’s $5 billion burn as Zuckerberg builds in-house infrastructure to reduce dependency on rented GPUs.
Meta reported $12 billion in free cash flow for Q1 2026, fueling a $125 to $145 billion capex plan to develop sovereign compute infrastructure. The move threatens CoreWeave, Meta’s largest backlog customer under a $21 billion commitment, as Zuckerberg aims to replace rented GPUs with in-house data centers.
Meta’s revenue surged 33.08% year over year to $56.31 billion, driven by $55.024 billion in ad sales. CoreWeave, meanwhile, posted $2.078 billion in revenue, up 111.69%, but burned $4.711 billion in free cash flow and faced $536 million in interest expenses. CoreWeave’s $142 price target now hinges on Meta’s continued reliance on its services.
Zuckerberg stated Meta is on track to deliver “personal superintelligence to billions,” underscoring the strategic shift toward self-sufficient compute power. CoreWeave’s $99.4 billion backlog and 8 GW expansion plan by 2030 may face pressure if Meta accelerates its sovereign compute rollout.