Meta Platforms

AI Infrastructure · Big Tech · Capital Markets

Funding

Meta launches $35B stock sale, plans $95B total for AI buildout

The move marks a rare pivot to public equity markets by a company that has mostly funded growth internally through operating cash flow.

• Meta launched roughly $35 billion in public stock offerings on Monday — $22.5B in Class A common stock and $12.5B in mandatory convertible preferred stock — as part of a total AI financing plan of up to $95 billion.
• Meta, parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is spending heavily to build data centers and compute capacity for Mark Zuckerberg's 'personal superintelligence' push, competing with OpenAI and Anthropic.
• A separate $60 billion at-the-market program involving new non-voting Class C shares is expected to launch in Q1 2027, with depositary shares from the current offering seeking a Nasdaq listing under ticker METAM.
• Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom have signaled non-binding interest in buying up to $5 billion combined of the Class A shares, while Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are leading the underwriting.
• Meta expects 2026 capital expenditures of $135 billion to $145 billion for AI infrastructure, and its free cash flow turned negative in Q3 as that spending accelerated.
• As of September 30, Meta held $82.45 billion in cash and marketable securities, only slightly above its $80.92 billion in long-term debt, a gap that helps explain the turn to equity financing.
• The raise shows how the AI infrastructure race is straining balance sheets even at highly profitable tech giants, pushing them toward capital-raising tactics once associated with earlier-stage or distressed companies.