Meta Sells $95 Billion in Stock for Its AI Buildout

Meta, formerly Facebook, is issuing up to $95 billion in stock to build data centers and chips for AI. The company is offering $22.5 billion in Class A shares. It is also offering $12.5 billion in depositary shares tied to new preferred stock. On top of that, it is offering up to $60 billion in new Class C shares, and these carry no voting rights. The new shares will not trade on an exchange until at least the first quarter of 2027. Because they carry no vote, Mark Zuckerberg keeps control of the company. AI chipmakers Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom have expressed interest in buying up to $5 billion of Meta stock. That said, this is not a firm commitment.

These numbers tell us something about frontier AI. Competing without your own data centers and chips is getting harder for everyone except a handful of mega-corporations. We also see that even while raising tens of billions of dollars for AI, Mark Zuckerberg was not willing to give up real control of his company. For an ordinary business, building this kind of infrastructure is simply too expensive.