Meta (NASDAQ:META) shares fell 7% on Thursday despite strong earnings, after the company unveiled plans to issue a new class of non-voting Class C stock. In its filing, a special committee cited an increasingly challenging environment for raising capital, pointing to recent and anticipated large raises by Alphabet, SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI to fund similar AI growth. Meta said it currently has sufficient capital for its needs but wants more financing flexibility going forward, with the new shares available as early as the end of 2026. The article notes Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $135–145 billion, while third-quarter revenue grew 26% to $64.6 billion and capex reached $34.91 billion, pushing free cash flow negative.
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METAAI investmentfundraisingartificial intelligence
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Related tickers and likely impact
META
▼ Likely negativeMeta Platforms
Relevance: high
| Market | US stocks |
|---|---|
| Sector | Communication Services |
| Industry | Interactive Media & Services |
| Market cap | $1.9T |
| Close on 10/22/2026 | 648.91 |
| Change that session | -6.97% |
Impact is scored by AI from the headline and may be wrong. It is not investment advice.
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On October 21, 2026, Meta's board approved a new publicly listed, non-voting Class C common stock, to be distributed as a one-time dividend of one Class C share for each Class A and Class B share. Mark Zuckerberg holds about 60.6% of the votes but only about 13.4% of the stock, and the structure lets him sell part of his stake without losing control. The class will be created when the amended charter takes effect on January 19, 2027, with trading expected in late January 2027, and Meta says it may use it for capital raising, employee pay and acquisitions, though it has no specific financing plans yet. The announcement comes as free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion and 2026 capex is guided at $135 billion to $145 billion. META rose 0.47% to $697.52 in the regular session and reached $712.61 after hours, up 2.16%, alongside revenue of $64.601 billion.
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