Meta Infrastructure Chief Santosh Janardhan to Step Down in Early 2027

Meta's head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, will leave in early 2027, he told staff in a memo obtained by CNBC on Wednesday. Janardhan, at Meta since 2009, said it is time to pass the baton to David Brown, a former Amazon Web Services senior vice president who joined Meta in July.

Brown will now formally lead Meta's infrastructure efforts and serve as chief technical officer of the Meta Compute initiative, which is spearheaded by president and vice chairman Dina Powell McCormick and technical leader Daniel Gross. Zuckerberg is relying on these newer executives to build the data centers and related infrastructure behind Meta's AI ambitions.

The move underscores CEO Mark Zuckerberg's push to expand data center operations under newer leaders at a time of increasing investor scrutiny on capital expenditure spending by Meta and its hyperscaler rivals. Meta said during its recent third-quarter earnings report that it expects full-year capex in the range of $135 billion to $145 billion, and logged negative free cash flow of $2.12 billion. S&P Global Ratings cited that in late October when it revised Meta's credit rating from AA- stable to AA- negative.

Janardhan said in the memo that it was the right time for Brown to take the lead in shaping the work, adding that Brown has spent his career building and operating dependable infrastructure for a wide range of demanding workloads. Janardhan will help support Brown through the first quarter of 2027 as part of the transition.

After the handover, Janardhan will advise as chief technology officer of Meta Compute. Bloomberg News first reported the executive transition.

Meta shares were down 0.61% in delayed trading at $637.48.