NEW YORK, June 5, 2026, 15:02 (EDT)
Meta Platforms slipped Friday after the Financial Times said the company could sell tens of billions of dollars in stock to pay for AI infrastructure. Shares dropped 5.6% to $592.29.
Timing is key here. Just days ago, Alphabet pushed its equity capital raise up to $84.75 billion for more AI infrastructure and compute, putting a new figure out for investors to gauge AI competition costs.
Meta is looking at an equity raise, selling new shares or share-based securities to get more capital. That would be a bigger shift in how Big Tech gets funding. Reuters said this week that major tech names are turning to debt and equity deals as they push to grow AI data centers, with total investment seen topping $700 billion this year.
Meta execs are looking at new ways to bring in cash, including mandatory convertible preferred shares, the Financial Times reported. That hybrid security begins as preferred stock, then switches to common shares later. According to Investing.com, finance chief Susan Li and President Dina Powell McCormick are heading discussions, though Meta hasn’t hired banks and hasn’t committed to a move.
Meta told investors it now sees 2026 capex at $125 billion to $145 billion, raising its earlier outlook of $115 billion to $135 billion. The company pointed to more expensive components and higher data center spending. First-quarter revenue climbed 33% to $56.31 billion. Meta had $81.18 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of the quarter.
“Compute is becoming increasingly important,” Li told analysts in April. She said Meta was “investing aggressively” to boost infrastructure and lock in future capacity, signing supply-chain deals and cloud agreements. Q4 Capital
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called the spending part of the company’s push into “personal superintelligence,” or AI agents working across all its apps and devices. Back in April, he said Meta was “on track to deliver personal superintelligence to billions of people.” Meta
Tech shares struggled, with new numbers hitting as the Nasdaq lost 3.7%, according to Investing.com. Alphabet and Amazon both fell too. Meta’s bigger drop tied to both its own issues and heavy selling in higher-priced AI stocks.
Meta posted another solid quarter for ads, with ad impressions up 19% year-on-year and the average price per ad up 12%. Operating margin stayed at 41%. The mention of a possible share sale rattled investors. They are still deciding if spending on AI will eat into profits before new products start to deliver at the same level.
There’s a possible risk for holders. A big common-stock sale would dilute current investors. Preferred or convertible offerings might also hit the share price if people think Meta’s cash flow or debt is looking weak. Sources say talks are still at an early stage and Meta might go for a smaller deal, sell bonds, try a partnership, or just end up doing nothing.
Meta’s AI push isn’t just about products anymore. Investors are looking at how the company will fund it, and markets are weighing what happens if the big ad business needs extra capital to keep going.
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