Meta rakes it in, yet still borrows billions for AI

Meta Platforms looks like a money-printing machine. So why has it been loading up on billions of dollars in debt to pay for its new data centers?

It turns out that the abundant free cash flow that Meta reports to investors is something of an optical illusion. Yes, it generated billions in cash last year, but that was largely devoured by the all-too-real cash costs that come with paying stock-based compensation to employees. Those included billions of dollars in withholding taxes triggered when employee shares vested, and billions more for share buybacks used to offset share dilution from those same awards.

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