capital expenditure

American  

noun

Accounting, Finance.

1. an addition to the value of fixed assets, as by the purchase of a new building.

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capital expenditure British  

noun

1. expenditure on acquisitions of or improvements to fixed assets

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capital expenditure Cultural  

1. The purchase of an asset by a firm.

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Etymology

Origin of capital expenditure

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

capital expenditure

Amazon has said it plans to spend $220 billion on capital expenditure this year, almost double what it spent in 2025.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

That will require $5.5 billion in capital expenditure, including $1.7 billion this year.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026

Rising free cash flow and falling capital expenditure should bolster capacity for additional dividends and share buybacks, says Euroz Hartleys.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

Inari has set aside 450 million ringgit in capital expenditure, mainly for optical-photonics processing and plant expansion, he notes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

The original scheme, it was stated, was too large and ambitious, and the association was weighted at the outset with a capital expenditure and an annual working outlay beyond its strength and capacity. 

From Norfolk Annals A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century, Vol. 2 by Charles Mackie