Dear Trader,

Meta tacked roughly $125 billion onto its future spending tab in a single quarter, and the total now sits around $825 billion.

Most companies that did that would get grilled on the next earnings call.

Whether Meta gets the same treatment or a pat on the head tells you a lot about who Wall Street trusts right now.

Mark Sebastian’s taking that question into the State of the Market live room today, and he’s pulling Licia Leslie in to help him work through it.

They’ll also cover GM’s plan to build cars in two years with AI and the troop pullback across the Middle East, since Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz the last time this fight heated up.

They’ll pull up some charts too, so you can watch where the money’s actually going.

Grab your seat with the link below.

Click this link to jump to the State of the Market live room.

This link adds State of the Market to your calendar.

The Daily News Breakdown

SIGN: The U.S. is pulling troops and diplomats out of posts across the Middle East, and the last time Washington cleared the room like this, it teamed up with Israel to strike Iran in February. Sources told NBC that troops at bases in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait got orders to relocate.

On Wednesday, diplomatic missions in the region learned they’d run with reduced staff. The State Department says the only ordered departure covers Saudi Arabia, where Iran-backed Houthis keep hitting airports.

One official said President Trump’s weighing a restart of “major combat operations” against Iran, and the timing could fall on either side of the Nov. 3 midterms. Iran choked off the Strait of Hormuz last time, so if your portfolio cares about oil, I’d keep one eye on the exits.

SIREN: Meta Platforms (META) just disclosed about $825 billion in future spending commitments, much of it for AI computing power and data centers. In July that number sat near $700 billion, so Zuck stacked on roughly $125 billion in one quarter.

The filing breaks out $355.7 billion in data center and energy leases that aren’t on the balance sheet yet and run to 2036, plus $454.5 billion in contracts it can’t cancel. That second pile covers outside cloud computing, power deals and gear for Reality Labs, Meta’s favorite place to burn cash.

It also raised its capex (spending on buildings and equipment) plans Wednesday and created a new class of nonvoting stock it could use for acquisitions. I’d read that part of the filing twice.

SNEAKER: General Motors (GM) wants to take a car from sketch to showroom in about two years, and it’s counting on AI to pull it off. Detroit’s usual cycle runs four to five years, which looks glacial next to Chinese automakers turning out new models in two to three.

At its GM Forward event in Manhattan, GM said it’ll use AI and simulation to cut down on physical testing. It’s also building its own OnStar AI assistant to replace the Google Gemini one in its cars, starting with the Cadillac Lyriq via an over-the-air update (software beamed straight to the car, no dealer trip).

And yes, it’ll cost a subscription, because every automaker wants a monthly payment that outlives your car loan.