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

Moves to scale up its AI ecosystem and a shift in capital expenditure toward computing infrastructure point to a faster expansion of its AI business in the medium term.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet next week, or in the Middle East — the market’s best hope for big upside is a peak in hyperscaler capital expenditure, the strategists say.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026

Yet capital expenditure among German companies remains on the decline, with economists pointing to a lack of reform in the country’s complex regulatory system as one factor holding back investment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

The management attributed the suspension to frontloaded capital expenditure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 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