(Oct 27): Meta Platforms Inc is seeking to raise as much as US$97.5 billion (RM398.32 billion) from selling common and preferred stock, supporting its development in artificial intelligence with one of the largest equity offerings in history.
The company sold US$12.5 billion of preferred shares at US$50 apiece and US$25 billion of common stock at US$625 per share, according to a statement late on Monday. The common stock offering was upsized from US$22.5 billion. Meta also plans to raise as much as about US$60 billion in an at-the-market share sale programme, which allows companies to sell shares in the open market from time to time. The ATM will consist of its planned Class C nonvoting shares.
Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc agreed to buy as much as US$5 billion of the common shares in aggregate, the company said earlier. Meta intends to use the proceeds to support its investment in AI infrastructure and personal superintelligence.
Meta’s shares slipped 1.7% to US$631.51 at 9.53am in New York (9.53pm in Malaysia). Its shares have fallen 2.7% this year through Friday’s close.
Earlier this year, Alphabet Inc and Intel Corp also held rare stock sales in order to support investment in AI initiatives, which require massive amounts of infrastructure and computing power. Both sales were oversubscribed.
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg overhauled the company’s AI operation through an aggressive hiring push and has launched new products as well as committed hundreds of billions of dollars to build out the infrastructure needed to support the models. The company also has unveiled a personal AI agent known as Muse and an AI model called Muse Wonder, which leadership says is on par with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic PBC’s Claude in terms of tasks such as coding.
The first part of the offering consisted of 250 million depositary shares that represent a 1/20th interest in mandatory convertible preferred shares. Details of the ATM programme have yet to be determined, the statement shows.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc are leading Meta’s share offerings, according to the statement.
During its earnings report, Meta announced a new class of nonvoting stock that could ultimately be used to help pay for acquisitions and other expenses. Meta’s Class C shares will be distributed to existing investors through a stock dividend. Holders will get one share of the new stock in what will essentially be a two-for-one stock split, Meta said. It expects trading of the new shares to begin in January.
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