New York, Feb 27, 2026, 16:51 (EST) — Trading after the bell.
- Meta dropped roughly 3% after the bell, tacking on to an already soft session for megacap tech stocks.
- Meta has reportedly inked a multi-year agreement to lease Google’s AI chips for training its next wave of models.
- Power and regulation have re-emerged as key themes with March 4 events looming in Washington and across the investor circuit.
Shares of Meta Platforms slid 2.8% to $648.18 after hours Friday, with the stock swinging from $636.01 to $657.19 during the session.
Selling pressure persists, with investors still grappling with the core issue: can Big Tech’s ramped-up capital expenditures—those billions flowing into servers and data centers—deliver quick returns. “AI will continue to disrupt the world but I don’t think it’s the end of the world,” said Ken Polcari, partner and chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth. Reuters
Power bills are now part of the equation. The White House plans to gather major data center and AI firms—Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Anthropic—next week, aiming to hammer out a pledge designed to keep utility customers from footing higher electricity bills as more data centers come online. “The ‘Ratepayer Protection Pledge’ is meaningless until we see utilities file contracts… that allocate all costs of serving data centers to data centers,” said Ari Peskoe, who directs the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School’s environmental and energy program. Reuters
Meta has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar agreement with Google to lease its Tensor Processing Units—Google’s own AI chips—for building out new AI models, The Information reported. These TPUs serve as a rival option to Nvidia’s GPUs, which currently command the AI training space. Both Meta and Google did not respond to requests for comment.
In Europe, an adviser to the EU’s highest court sided with regulators who want more information from Meta in two antitrust cases—a non-binding stance, but one that judges often take seriously. “The Commission has broad powers of investigation,” Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said. He also noted that certain safeguards restrict how far those inquiries can go into privacy; a final decision from the court is expected in the next few months. Reuters
Louisiana’s utility commission has shot down a push from an environmental group to probe Meta’s $27 billion data center plan, Earthjustice said. The group, which raised concerns that tweaks to financing could saddle other utility customers with costs if Meta exited early, got nowhere with regulators. “By dismissing this motion, the PSC is giving the green light” to future deals like this one, said Earthjustice attorney Susan Stevens Miller. Reuters
Meta is moving to cool political pressure around teen safety. Instagram plans to start notifying parents—if supervision is switched on—whenever teens keep searching for suicide or self-harm topics. The feature rolls out next week in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada.
Still, the bear case for the stock isn’t new. Early on, specifics around chip supply deals and power agreements are often sparse, yet expenses start piling up fast. Should regulators in Europe or U.S. states get tougher, or if energy prices spike beyond forecasts, investors may just keep viewing AI infrastructure as a hit to margins rather than a growth story.
Next up for traders: March 4. Meta’s CFO Susan Li is scheduled to speak at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, 11:30 a.m. Pacific, with the session streaming on the company’s investor relations page. Investors know these events—where even a small change in tone on spending discipline can jolt the stock.
