Capex
Money a company spends on long-lasting things like buildings, data centers, factories and equipment. It's an investment in the future, so it doesn't show up as a normal cost all at once.
Capex is short for capital expenditures. A big jump in capex can be a sign a company is betting on growth, but it also uses up cash that could otherwise go back to shareholders.
Example: a tech company building new AI data centers spends billions in capex before those centers earn anything.
Also called: capital spending, capital expenditures, capital expenditure, capex spending.