Meta to create a new class of shares to bankroll its AI drive

Meta has announced a new class of shares designed to fund its artificial intelligence initiatives. The company disclosed the move in its third-quarter earnings report, released on Wednesday. The new stock carries no voting rights, and trading is expected to begin in 2027.

According to the company, the proceeds will go not only toward AI but also toward potential acquisitions and employee compensation. «The scale of investment required to compete, sustain growth, expand infrastructure, and pursue new strategic initiatives amidst the AI transformation taking place in the industry is significant,» Meta said in its press release. On the earnings call, chief financial officer Susan Li added that the new class of shares will «expand our funding tools and give us flexibility to invest behind the unprecedented momentum we're seeing across every part of our business driven by AI.»

Meta has already poured billions into the AI race, building and heavily promoting sprawling data centers, poaching top talent from rivals including OpenAI, and developing models meant to rival those of other tech giants. The company now expects capital expenditures of between $135 billion and $145 billion this year, up from a prior estimate of $130 billion to $145 billion.

A muse with caveats

It has been a busy stretch for Meta. In September the company launched its AI agent, Muse. Like its peers, it can clear out your inbox, book restaurant reservations, and plan trips. The app quickly climbed to the top of the app stores and hit ten million downloads in the US this week, just as Meta also rolled out its Muse Wonder model.

The rollout has not been free of mishaps. Amid privacy concerns, a tech YouTuber reported that the agent handed out his address to a stranger on Facebook Marketplace. The company also had to pause Muse's conversation-sharing feature after researchers found chats sitting publicly available on the web.

Source: The Verge