Meta Eyes Tens of Billions in Stock Sale to Fund Zuckerberg's AI Ambitions

Meta is actively exploring a massive equity raise — potentially tens of billions of dollars — as it scrambles to finance Mark Zuckerberg's sweeping AI buildout. The discussions were galvanized by Alphabet's blockbuster $85 billion share deal this week, which was upsized by $5 billion on the back of overwhelming investor demand. Meta's own stock dropped roughly 7% on Friday, with the decline accelerating after news of the talks broke.

The urgency is driven by Meta's staggering capital expenditure plans: the company expects to spend up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone, with even higher outlays projected for 2027. That spending is aimed at building and running the massive data centers needed to power Zuckerberg's vision of 'personal superintelligence' — AI assistants delivered through Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and a line of AI-powered wearables including smart glasses and voice pendants.

CFO Susan Li and Dina Powell McCormick — a Goldman Sachs veteran of 16 years who moved from Meta's board to serve as president in January — are leading the fundraising discussions. Powell McCormick's Goldman background is notable: the bank led Alphabet's deal this week and is considered well-positioned to win a Meta mandate if the company moves forward. Meta has examined Alphabet's use of mandatory convertible preferred stock, a structure that raises cash immediately while deferring actual share issuance for potentially years.

Meta has already been creative in financing its AI push. It carried less than $10 billion in long-term debt as recently as 2022 but has since borrowed $55 billion through a series of bond deals. In October, it raised $27 billion via a joint venture with private capital firm Blue Owl to build a Manhattan-sized data center in Louisiana called 'Hyperion.' The company has also cut costs aggressively, firing 8,000 employees last month and halting share buybacks — a program it had run continuously since 2017.

The potential Meta offering would land in one of the busiest stretches of US capital markets activity in recent memory. SpaceX is set to IPO next week at a projected $1.78 trillion valuation, raising up to $86 billion. Anthropic has confidentially filed for its own listing, and OpenAI is also preparing to go public — both expected to command trillion-dollar-plus valuations. Analysts note that Microsoft and Amazon may also be eyeing equity raises as their own data center spending surges. Meta has not yet hired banks and could ultimately decide against a share sale; a spokesperson called the reports 'pure speculation,' though acknowledged the company is focused on raising capital 'in the most flexible ways' to support its AI ambitions.