New York, Feb 23, 2026, 10:56 EST — Regular session
- Meta shares dropped, slipping alongside other major tech names as tariff uncertainty resurfaced.
- Wells Fargo bumped its price target on Meta a bit higher, maintaining its Overweight rating on the stock.
- AI infrastructure spending is still under the microscope, with investors trying to gauge just how much cash gets burned through.
Meta Platforms (META) dropped 1.5% to $646.05 Monday morning, slipping from Friday’s $655.66 close. Tech shares broadly took a hit as investors reacted to tariff jitters following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 15% global levy. “You simply can’t bet against Trump. He wants tariffs, and he’s going to find a way to implement them,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital LLC. Reuters
Awkward timing for Meta. Tariffs — plus talk of retaliation — tend to freeze up corporate spending, hitting ad budgets quickly. Meta’s business stays anchored in advertising, despite heavy investments in new computing hardware.
Meta is pressing investors to accept steeper costs as it pursues more ambitious AI goals. Back in January, the company projected 2026 capital expenditures between $115 billion and $135 billion, with overall expenses running from $162 billion to $169 billion—those figures cover outlays for equipment, real estate, and data centers. “This is going to be a big year for delivering personal superintelligence,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts at the time. Reuters
Still, there was a bright spot. Wells Fargo’s Ken Gawrelski bumped up his Meta price target to $856, a slight rise from $849, sticking with his Overweight call. “Compute capacity is emerging as the critical determinant of success,” he wrote. TipRanks
The Wall Street Journal on Monday highlighted just how little of Meta’s cash ends up in the hands of investors, pointing to employee stock awards as a major drain. According to the report, those stock grants will eat up around 96% of Meta’s projected free cash flow for 2025 — that’s the figure investors usually watch after capital spending. The analysis also noted this is part of why Meta has taken on more debt while ramping up data center construction. “We can delude ourselves for a while that this is not a real cost, but we’re only fooling ourselves at the end of the day,” said Kevin Koharki, an accounting professor at Purdue University. mint
Meta’s AI ambitions depend heavily on chips. Nvidia last week confirmed a multiyear agreement to supply Meta with millions of AI chips—both the current Blackwell models and the upcoming Rubin line—plus central processors that rival those from Intel and AMD. The deal’s value wasn’t revealed.
Cost control is surfacing in other ways as well. Meta has trimmed its yearly stock option grants for most employees by roughly 5%, according to the Financial Times. The company wouldn’t offer a comment, Reuters noted.
Meta’s board has set a fresh quarterly cash dividend at $0.525 per share, with payment scheduled for March 26. The record date is March 16, according to the company.
The “AI spending now, payback later” story loses steam fast if tariffs go up. A stumble in ad demand could hit a business already burning cash on expensive expansion, and investors don’t stick around once those “temporary” margin pressures start to look permanent.
Eyes have shifted beyond Menlo Park now. Tariff developments and Nvidia’s earnings, set for Wednesday, Feb. 25, are in focus as traders gauge the pulse of the AI trade.
