---
title: "Capital expenditure: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH"
source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/capital-expenditure
description: "Capital expenditure: Spending on buildings and equipment, shortened to capex. Chapter 1."
---

# Capital expenditure

What does “Capital expenditure” mean?

Capital expenditureSpending on buildings and equipment, shortened to capex. *Chapter 1.*

From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy)

## Where the book uses it

- [Chapter 1 — The Stakes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-1)What the race is for: the belief that a lead in AI can compound into a lasting advantage, how long such leads have actually lasted, and what a trillion dollars a year is being bet against.

## Where the record uses it

- Scorecard indicator [Microsoft Jun. quarter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard#row-22)

## Also discussed in

- Dated test [Chapter 12, claim 5, the hyperscalers’ own borrowing](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests#2027-27)

## Sources that use it

- Oracle Corporation, “Oracle Announces Q1 Results Driven by Triple Digit Growth in Cloud Infrastructure Revenues,” Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, filed 10 September 2026, for the quarter ended 31 August 2026 (“a record Q1 operating cash flow of $23 billion, up 184%. Free cash flow was negative $5 billion for Q1”; the cash-flow statement gives “Net cash provided by operating activities” of 23,103 against “Capital expenditures” of 28,499, in millions of dollars, and the free-cash-flow table a negative figure in every quarter of fiscal 2026; the release subtracts customers’ prepayments of 11,363 from the capital expenditures for a non-GAAP net cash outlay of 17,966) [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/filing#oracle-q1-fy27-sep26)

## Related terms

- [Capex](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/capex)
- [Free cash flow](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/free-cash-flow)
- [OCF](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/ocf)
- [Algorithmic efficiency](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/algorithmic-efficiency)
- [Application layer](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/application-layer)
- [Arsenal behind every arsenal](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/arsenal-behind-every-arsenal)
- [Clocks of diffusion](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/clocks-of-diffusion)
- [Cluster](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/cluster)
- [Epoch AI](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/epoch-ai)
- [Exclusive generation](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/exclusive-generation)
- [Exclusivity of the model](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/exclusivity-of-the-model)
- [Falsifier](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/falsifier)

From the glossary of The AI Compute Race.

- [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger)
- [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests)
- [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard)
- [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases)
- [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion)
- [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory)
- [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine)
- [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion)
- [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary)
- [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people)
- [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources)
- [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes)
- [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections)
- [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1)
- [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper)
- [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent)
- [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties)

*The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026.

[About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)