Companies that build the power side of AI campuses had a bad Thursday. After Meta reported results on 21 October, GE Vernova fell about 11 percent in afternoon trading on 22 October, according to 24/7 Wall St, and Eaton lost around 6 percent. Heatmap's count was a drop of about 10 percent for GE Vernova, with Vistra and CoreWeave down by about as much and Meta itself by almost 7 percent.
What Meta Said
Meta beat revenue expectations, raised its spending outlook for AI infrastructure and indicated that heavy investment would go on beyond 2026. Spending on servers, data centers and networks pushed free cash flow negative for the quarter. The company also created a new class of non-voting shares, partly to raise capital. Its finance chief told analysts that there were no financing plans to announce and that next year's budget and capacity plans were at an early stage. Heatmap adds that a hotter-than-expected inflation report the same day weighed on the market. Its author is careful to say this does not show the AI build-out is ending; it may only mean that companies do not have to build as fast.
The Order Book Behind The Share Price
GE Vernova reports its third-quarter results on 28 October. As of the second quarter its backlog stood at $176 billion, up $13 billion in three months, according to 24/7 Wall St. Of the 116 GW in its gas equipment pipeline, 53 GW was firm backlog and 63 GW was covered by slot reservation agreements; management expects at least 125 GW under contract by the end of the year. Electrification orders from data centers passed $5 billion in the first half, more than double the full-year 2025 figure. Analysts quoted in the 24 October piece will look for how fast reservations turn into firm orders. The shares were still up about a quarter this year after the fall.
The reports describe share prices and a spending outlook. None of them mentions an order that was canceled or postponed.
Why A Planner Should Care
A slot reservation is a place in a factory queue, not a signed order, so the split between reserved and firm gigawatts in the 28 October report is the figure worth reading, more than the share price. For a project that depends on delivery dates, the useful question to put to a supplier is which of its slots are firm.
Orders further down the equipment chain looked strong in ABB's record quarter. For the plants themselves see gas turbines.
Sources: 24/7 Wall St. (22 October), Heatmap News, 24/7 Wall St. (24 October)
