Meta executives are exploring a potential equity raise worth tens of billions of dollars to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure spending that could reach $145 billion this year, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Shares of Meta dropped nearly 7% in afternoon trading on the news.
The Catalyst
The discussions gained momentum after Alphabet upsized its equity raise from $80 billion to $85 billion this week, creating the largest equity capital markets transaction in history. Meta has been studying Alphabet’s deal structure, which included mandatory convertible preferred securities that allow companies to raise cash immediately while delaying stock dilution, according to Capital Brief.
Three people familiar with the matter told the FT that Meta’s AI-related capital expenditures could climb further in 2027 beyond the $145 billion projected for this year.
No Banks Hired Yet
Meta has not hired banks for a potential offering and may ultimately decide against issuing new shares, the FT reported. One person told the newspaper it would be “premature” to say a decision had been reached, with all financing options still on the table. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li and President Dina Powell McCormick are reportedly leading the discussions around potential financing strategies and long-term infrastructure planning.
The Agent Strategy Behind the Spend
The capital would support CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s push toward what he has described as “personal superintelligence” across Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and AI-powered wearable devices. Meta is separately developing Hatch, a premium AI agent product priced at up to $199.99 per month that would perform tasks like creating software, managing calendars, and sending emails, according to The Information via Stocktwits.
A Crowded Capital Markets Window
Meta’s deliberations arrive during a surge in tech capital markets activity. Anthropic has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, SpaceX plans to launch its offering next week, and OpenAI is also exploring a public listing, according to Capital Brief. The cluster of offerings represents the largest wave of technology capital raising in recent memory.
The Infrastructure Arms Race Accelerates
The numbers tell the story: Alphabet raised $85 billion, OpenAI closed a $122 billion round in March, and Meta is now exploring its own multi-billion dollar raise. All three are explicitly tying the spending to AI agent infrastructure. The competitive dynamic has shifted from model quality to raw compute capacity, with energy grid readiness emerging as the binding constraint. For agent builders and enterprise buyers, the question is whether the infrastructure war delivers cheaper, more accessible inference, or whether the cost gets passed through to agent subscription pricing.