Systems and methods for machine learning-based power capping and virtual machine placement in cloud platforms are disclosed. A method includes applying a machine learning model to predict whether a request for deployment of a virtual machine corresponds to deployment of a user-facing (UF) virtual machine or a non-user-facing (NUF) virtual machine. The method further includes sorting a list of candidate servers based on both a chassis score and a server score for each server to determine a ranked list of the candidate servers, where the server score depends at least on whether the request for the deployment of the virtual machine is determined to be a request for a deployment of a UF virtual machine or a request for a deployment of an NUF virtual machine. The method further includes deploying the virtual machine to a server with highest rank among the ranked list of the candidate servers.