Meta explores multibillion-dollar stock sale to fund AI

Meta Weighs Tens of Billions in Stock Sale for AI Infrastructure

Meta is exploring an equity raise worth tens of billions of dollars to help finance its expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to a Financial Times report published Friday. The potential stock sale would follow Alphabet’s record-breaking $84.75 billion equity offering earlier this week and reflects the escalating costs of competing in the AI arms race among Big Tech companies.

A Wave of Big Tech Equity Raises

The report comes as the technology sector enters an unprecedented era of capital-raising to fund AI buildouts. Alphabet on Monday announced plans to sell $80 billion in shares — later upsized to $84.75 billion — including a $10 billion investment from Berkshire Hathaway, to finance data center construction and AI compute capacity. That deal, the largest corporate equity raise in history, sent a clear signal that even the most cash-rich companies in the world cannot fund AI ambitions from operating cash flow alone.reuters

Barron’s reported that Meta and other tech giants could follow Alphabet’s lead, noting that the shift toward equity financing suggests bond markets are becoming less favorable for the scale of capital needed. Meta had already raised $25 billion in bonds in late April after lifting its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to between $125 billion and $145 billion.fortune

Meta’s AI Spending Trajectory

Meta has committed to spending more than $600 billion on U.S. AI infrastructure through 2028, including data centers intended to power its pursuit of what it calls “superintelligence”. In January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched “Meta Compute,” a top-level initiative to develop global AI infrastructure over the coming decade. The company has signed multi-billion-dollar deals with Nvidia, AMD, CoreWeave, and Nebius to secure chips and computing capacity.yahoo

Despite these investments, Meta’s stock has shed roughly 25% since August 2025, shedding around $500 billion in market value, as investors question the returns on such massive spending. Morgan Stanley recently argued Meta remains well-positioned to win in AI, even as its shares have underperformed the broader market this year.barrons

The Broader Financing Shift

The potential Meta offering would add to what is already a historic period for capital markets. SpaceX is heading toward a record initial public offering next week aiming to raise $75 billion, while Anthropic has filed confidentially for its own listing. Together with Alphabet’s deal, the wave of offerings underscores how AI infrastructure demands are reshaping corporate finance. The collective 2026 capital expenditure plans of Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft now approach $725 billion, according to analyst estimates.youtube