Good morning, CFOs. Meta’s fast-growing debt load is significant; a proposal is under way to eliminate the U.S. quarterly reporting requirement; and the SEC's enforcement director resigns after six months.

As big tech companies tap the bond market to fund their ambitious AI spending plans, it’s worth keeping an eye on Meta, the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Kristin Broughton reports for today's newsletter.

The Facebook parent company said during its latest earnings call in January that it may look for additional financing for its infrastructure investments, even though it can fund its spending plans with existing cash flow. Meta is spending heavily on technology to power AI, with capital expenditures this year that could reach $135 billion. The company is also reporting strong revenue growth, with a 22% increase in 2025 from a year earlier, to $201 billion.

Meta’s fast-growing debt load is significant, in part, because the company had previously signaled to investors that it intended to operate with more cash than debt, analysts said. During the company’s earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said the addition of more financing “may lead us to eventually maintain a positive net debt balance.”

Translation: Meta warned investors that, for the first time, the company could operate with more debt on its books than cash.

Operating from a net-debt position isn’t necessarily a worrisome thing, and can signal that a company is in a high-investment period, analysts and professors said. Still, it would represent a change in positioning for the company, which issued its first bond in 2022. As of Dec. 31, the company had $58.7 billion in debt, and $81.6 billion in cash and marketable securities.

Li’s comments underscore the sheer scale of Meta’s capital spending, and the challenge of planning a company’s investments and financing in an environment where the technology is quickly developing, analysts said.

Moody’s Ratings previously included a cash-to-debt metric as one of several factors that it looks at for a potential downgrade on Meta’s debt. Moody’s first included the factor back in 2022. Meta has an Aa3 rating from Moody’s.

Moody’s in recent weeks revised its factors, citing Meta’s strong financial performance and execution. As part of the revision, Moody’s removed its cash-to-debt guardrail. S&P doesn’t include net debt as a guardrail on its credit rating. Fitch doesn’t rate Meta’s credit.

—Kristin Broughton

• Nebius, Meta Agree to $27 Billion AI Infrastructure Pact

📆 Earnings

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• Lululemon Athletica
• Oklo

📈 Economic Indicators 

• The National Association of Realtors reports pending home sales for February.

Exclusive: U.S. quarterly reporting may be on the way out.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing a proposal to eliminate the requirement to report earnings quarterly and instead give companies the option to share results twice a year, people familiar with the matter told Corrie Driebusch.

The details: The regulator could publish the proposal as soon as next month, the people said. In preparation for the proposal, regulators have been talking to officials at the major exchanges to discuss how they may need to adjust their rules.

Event alert: Bill Harts, the Long-Term Stock Exchange’s chief executive officer, is set to discuss the potential move at the WSJ’s CFO Council Summit next week. Read on below for more details about our gathering.

📰 Other headlines 

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• Nvidia’s CEO Projects $1 Trillion in AI Chip Sales as New Computing Era Begins
• Finance Bros to Tech Bros: Don’t Mess With My Bloomberg Terminal
• How Quantum Computing Works
• The Fed Keeps Getting Hit With New Shocks in Its Yearslong Inflation Fight

Financial leaders will gather in Palo Alto next week for the WSJ CFO Council Summit to examine how CFOs are navigating market volatility, evolving trade and regulatory policy and the growing impact of AI on the future of the enterprise. Walden Siew and I will be on the ground in California, and Kristin Broughton and Jennifer Williams will be in New York providing the top coverage and details from the gathering next week. Join the CFO Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of finance and corporate leadership.

Request Invitation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. securities regulator, said Judge Margaret Ryan resigned from her role as director of the enforcement division after about six months on the job. The SEC named Principal Deputy Director Sam Waldon as acting director of the division, effective Monday. It expects to name a permanent successor in the coming weeks. Ryan joined the agency in September. She held prior roles as a military judge and a partner at two law firms. Ryan said she would continue her public service in a different role.

Brown-Forman, the Louisville, Ky.-based Jack Daniel’s whiskey maker, appointed Jim Peters, a former executive at Whirlpool, as its new CFO to succeed Leanne Cunningham, who is set to retire effective May 1. Peters, who is slated to begin his new role March 31, was previously chief financial and administrative officer at Whirlpool. He most recently led enterprise-transformation initiatives at the company as executive vice president. At Brown-Forman, he will receive an annual base salary of $825,000. His short-term incentive compensation opportunity will be targeted at $825,000, and a long-term incentive plan will be targeted at $2.4 million. Peters will also receive a one-time new hire equity award in the form of restricted stock units with a grant date value of $900,000.

—Kelly Cloonan and Nicholas G. Miller contributed to today’s Ledger.

The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.