MENLO PARK, Aug. 25 -- Somewhere in the cash line of Meta's latest quarterly filing sits $10.80 billion the company can no longer spend. It was ordinary money market funds at the start of the year. It is now restricted cash, pledged into escrow under what Meta calls multi-year infrastructure purchase agreements, and it does not come back until sometime between 2028 and 2030.

That single reclassification says more about the artificial-intelligence buildout than any capital expenditure headline, because it is the point at which an intention becomes an obligation. A capex forecast can be cut. Cash held in escrow against a signed contract cannot.

Meta rose 1.92 per cent to $560.43 on Monday afternoon in New York while the memory makers it d...