Meta stock sinks on report company could raise tens of billions for AI
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen at the U.S. Capitol following a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.), March 26, 2026.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Meta Shares fell more than 5 percent on Friday Finance Times reported that the company could potentially raise tens of billions of dollars in a stock offering to fund its AI investments.
According to FT’s report, the social media company is considering a potential share sale after its rival Alphabet this week, it said it plans to raise $85 billion from the share sale, up from $80 billion. Alphabet fell last year, but the stock fell for a fourth straight week as investors worried about excessive AI spending.
The FT noted that Meta is not recruiting banks and may not issue new shares.
A Meta spokesperson called the report “pure speculation.”
“We have been clear that major opportunities in AI lie ahead, and we will continue to focus on raising capital in the most flexible ways to support this,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Like other tech giants, Meta and Alphabet are pouring record sums into capital spending as they race to build AI infrastructure to meet what they see as insatiable demand.
In April, Meta raised its 2026 capex forecast to $145 billion from a previous forecast of $135 billion. Alphabet said that month it was raising the cap on its capital spending target by $5 billion to $190 billion.
Wall Street has been treating the two companies very differently over the past year, largely because Alphabet has a thriving cloud business that helps justify its big spending. Alphabet’s shares have surged more than 115% in the last 12 months, outperforming all its megacap peers, while Meta’s shares are down 13%, the worst performer of the group.
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