You can use financing arrangements to avoid dropping the money all at once -- for example: A service provider offers you a monthly subscription or "lease-to-own deal" where you sign a contract to buy the software or hardware in exchange for monthly payments to be made over a period of time; that could be indefinite, or you become the owner of the hardware after the end of its useful life. Or just go to a bank, and they will be happy to create a loan and write a check out to your vendor for the lump sum, and so you are only responsible for making required monthly payments of the interest plus any principal, etc, required by the contract.
So no... not necessarily... CapEx is not necessarily paid out all at once. So the accounting ought to be the same whether its a CapEx purchase under a Subscription Agreement/Loan, or if its an "OpEx" payment for 1 month of services.
in the case of computer equipment that needs replacement very 4-5 yrs (or less depending on compute and other reqs) you’re perpetually in a lease and this starts to become opex
