What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Equinix (EQIX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Equinix generated $3.82B of operating cash flow and -$998M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -26.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Equinix (EQIX) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Equinix's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Equinix (EQIX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.82B

Capex

-$4.82B

Free Cash Flow

-$998M

FCF Margin

-26.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Equinix (EQIX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$998M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Equinix (EQIX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.82B	$3.82B
Capital Expenditure	-$4.82B	-$998M
Free Cash Flow	-$998M	-$998M
Acquisitions	-$414M	-$1.41B
Other Investing	-$1.75B	-$3.16B
Dividends Paid	-$1.91B	-$5.07B
Net Debt Change	$3.4B	-$1.67B
Other Financing & FX	$131M	-$1.54B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.54B	-$1.54B

Operating Cash Flow$3.82B
Capital Expenditure-$4.82B
Free Cash Flow-$998M
Acquisitions-$414M
Other Investing-$1.75B
Dividends Paid-$1.91B
Net Debt Change$3.4B
Other Financing & FX$131M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.54B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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Equinix (EQIX) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin20.8%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees13.7K

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