Meta Raises Planned Equity Fundraising to $97.5 Billion as AI Spending Accelerates

Meta Platforms has increased the size of its planned equity fundraising to $97.5 billion as the social-media company pushes ahead with a major expansion of artificial-intelligence infrastructure. The latest terms raise the common-stock portion of a financing plan that also includes preferred securities and a proposed at-the-market share-sale program.

Common-stock portion rises to $25 billion

Meta said it increased the common-stock offering announced a day earlier from $22.5 billion to $25 billion. The shares were priced at $625 each. The company also priced 250 million depositary shares at $50 apiece.

The figures describe offerings Meta has announced and priced; they do not establish that it has already raised the full $97.5 billion. Meta also plans a separate at-the-market share-sale program worth up to $60 billion. In such a program, a company sells shares gradually at prevailing market prices rather than completing one offering at a single price.

Future share-sale timing is not finalized

Meta expects to launch the larger at-the-market program after new non-voting Class C shares begin trading, expected in the first quarter of 2027. The company has not finalized the timing or terms of that sale.

Chipmakers show interest as capital needs grow

Meta's fundraising plan has drawn interest of up to $5 billion in total from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom for Class A shares. Nvidia separately said it would invest $3 billion in Meta's equity offering. The involvement of chip suppliers has raised questions about an increasingly circular flow of capital in the AI industry, as equipment makers help finance the expansion of an important customer.

Meta has been spending heavily on chips and data centers as it competes with OpenAI and Anthropic. William Blair analysts said investors were likely to keep questioning the financing and the possibility of future capital raises. They also said the financing reflected Meta's confidence in the long-term returns from AI investment while highlighting how capital-intensive that opportunity has become.

AI ambitions are weighing on cash flow

The company has committed to about $825 billion in future spending, driven primarily by data centers, AI-related infrastructure and cloud computing power, according to Reuters. That expansion has weakened a cash-flow profile that was historically strong. Meta reported a $2.12 billion cash burn in the third quarter, its first negative free cash flow in more than a decade, compared with positive free cash flow of $10.63 billion a year earlier.

Meta held $82.45 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $80.92 billion in long-term debt as of September 30, according to its latest quarterly filing. The company also recently raised the lower end of its annual capital-expenditure forecast to a range of $135 billion to $145 billion.

Planned Class C issuance

Meta has said it will issue Class C common stock in January 2027. The move is intended to help fund acquisitions and retain employees while preserving Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's control. Meta also agreed to grant Zuckerberg Class C shares that he can sell to help pay a potential California billionaire wealth tax, in exchange for his commitment to remain in California.

Meta's shares fell about 1.4% in morning trading after the latest financing announcement. Reuters reported that the early popularity of the consumer-focused Muse AI agent and the release of a competitive new series of AI models offered some support for the company's investment case, while analysts described the route to a profitable AI business as potentially uneven.

Sources

• Reuters: Meta equity-offering update
• Reuters: Nvidia, Meta partner on Muse agent; Nvidia invests $3 billion