Capital expenditure
Capital expenditure is the cash a company spent during the year on physical assets it expects to use for years — factories, machines, aircraft, data centres. It is usually shortened to capex.
How it is computed here
| Formula | as reported in the investing section of the cash flow statement |
|---|---|
| Unit | Currency amount |
| Period | One fiscal year, as reported |
| Source | Extracted from SEC filings; every value on an asset page carries the accounting tag and the filing it came from |
| Identifier | capex |
What goes into the formula
| Purchases of property, plant and equipment | The cash actually paid out, in the year it was paid. Not the amount committed, ordered or announced. |
|---|---|
| Capitalised software and development, where reported on the same line | Some companies build assets rather than buy them, and the cost lands here instead of in operating expenses. |
A formula without its inputs explained is decoration. Where an input is missing from a filing, the metric is left empty here rather than completed with a zero or an estimate.
How to calculate capital expenditure, step by step
A company keeping its plant up while growing it slightly.
| Depreciation and amortisation | $350M |
|---|---|
| Capital expenditure | $300M |
| Cash from operations | $620M |
- Free cash flow = 620 − 300 = $320M.
- Compare capex to depreciation: 300 ÷ 350 = 0.86.
- The company is spending 86 cents for every dollar its assets are being written down by.
Result: $300M spent, against $350M of wear recorded
Sustained below 1.0, that ratio means the asset base is shrinking in real terms — which is a decision, and sometimes a correct one, but it is not free cash flow that arrived by getting better at anything.
The figures in this example are illustrative and rounded — they are not a real company. The real figures on this site are the live ones below and on every asset page, each carrying the filing it came from.
What capital expenditure is good for
Capex is the clearest signal of what management expects. A company that suddenly doubles it believes something; one that cuts it in half while claiming growth is worth a second look. It is also the subtraction that turns operating cash flow into free cash flow, so it decides how much of the year's cash was ever available.
What this number does not tell you
Capex does not distinguish between keeping the lights on and building the next factory — maintenance and expansion arrive on the same line, and the filing rarely splits them. Companies that lease rather than buy show low capex and a large lease liability instead, which makes the figure misleading in a straight comparison. And a low capex year proves nothing on its own: the bill for deferred maintenance arrives later, on a page nobody connects back to this one.
Every metric on this site is published with its blind spot stated. A figure without its limit is half a fact.
Highest reported capital expenditure
| AMZNAMAZON COM INC | $131.8B |
|---|---|
| MSFTMICROSOFT CORPORATION | $115.9B |
| GOOGAlphabet Inc. | $91.4B |
| GOOGLAlphabet Inc. | $91.4B |
| METAMeta Platforms, Inc. | $69.7B |
| ORCLOracle Corporation | $55.7B |
| XOMEXXON MOBIL CORP | $28.4B |
| WMTWALMART INC. | $26.6B |
From the most recent fiscal year of each company. Only companies reporting in US dollars are ranked here — a figure in yen or won is not larger, it is in another currency.
See it in a published filing
These pages show the figure across up to nineteen fiscal years, with the accounting tag and the filing behind every value.