Meta Platforms has increased its planned equity fundraising to $97.5 billion as the Facebook parent accelerates investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, adding to a growing wave of large-scale financing deals across the technology industry.
The company said on Tuesday it had expanded its common stock offering, announced a day earlier, from $22.5 billion to $25 billion, pricing the shares at $625 each. Meta also priced 250 million depository shares at $50 apiece.
The company has launched public offerings involving about $35 billion in common and preferred stock. It also plans a separate at-the-market share sale programme worth up to $60 billion, under which shares would be sold gradually at prevailing market prices.
The larger programme is expected to begin after Meta’s new non-voting Class C shares start trading, which the company expects in the first quarter of 2027. The timing and terms of the sale have not yet been finalized.
Nvidia said separately that it would invest $3 billion in Meta’s equity offering. Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom have expressed interest in purchasing up to $5 billion in Class A shares combined.
‘Nvidia said separately that it would invest $3 billion in Meta’s equity offering’
The involvement of chip suppliers in financing one of their largest customers has renewed concerns about increasingly circular flows of capital in the AI industry. Meta has been committing substantial sums to chips and data centres as it seeks to strengthen its position against OpenAI and Anthropic.
‘We expect investors to continue to question the financing and potential for future capital raises,’ William Blair analysts said in a note. They added that the fundraising reflected both Meta’s confidence in the long-term returns from AI and the growing capital requirements of competing in the sector.
Meta shares fell about 1.4 per cent in morning trading.
The fundraising plan highlights a broader shift among major technology companies, which are increasingly turning to debt and equity markets to finance AI infrastructure after previously relying more heavily on their existing cash reserves. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, expanded its equity offerings to $84.75 billion in June.
Separately, SpaceX said on Monday that an affiliate of Apollo Global Management would purchase AI chips and server hardware and lease them to the company in a deal involving about $40 billion in principal payments.
Meta has committed to approximately $825 billion in future spending, driven largely by investment in data centres, AI infrastructure and cloud computing capacity. The expansion has put pressure on its cash generation: the company reported a cash burn of $2.12 billion in the third quarter, its first negative free cash flow in more than a decade. A year earlier, it had generated $10.63 billion in positive free cash flow.
The company’s consumer-focused AI agent, Muse, and a new series of AI models have helped support its investment strategy, although the long-term commercial returns remain uncertain.
As of 30 September, Meta held $82.45 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, alongside $80.92 billion in long-term debt, according to its latest quarterly filing.
Last week, the company raised the lower end of its annual capital expenditure forecast, setting the range at $135 billion to $145 billion.
Meta also plans to issue Class C common stock in January 2027, effectively creating a two-for-one share split. The new shares are intended to help fund acquisitions and retain key employees while preserving Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s control of the company.
Under a separate arrangement, Meta agreed to grant Zuckerberg Class C shares that he can sell to help cover a potential California billionaire wealth tax, in exchange for his commitment to remain in the state.
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