Meta plans a non-voting share class to fund AI spending as it reports third-quarter results

Meta said it will issue a new class of shares as it tightened its forecast for AI spending, a structure designed to preserve Mark Zuckerberg’s voting control¹.

The company plans to offer stock that would not dilute Zuckerberg’s controlling stake, and it is eyeing further stock sales to pay for its AI ambitions³.

The plan came alongside Meta’s third-quarter results². “Our investments are paying off,” Zuckerberg said in the earnings release, which also addressed the company’s AI initiatives and the computing capacity it has in place and scheduled to come online².

Meta had moved the report to 21 October, a full week earlier than expected⁷. The share plan and the tightened spending forecast were announced together, tying the question of how much Meta will spend on AI to the question of how it will pay for it¹.

Why it matters to investors

Whether Meta would turn to new stock to fund Zuckerberg’s heavy AI spending had been an open question before the results⁴. A non-voting class answers part of it: outside shareholders can supply capital, but the founder keeps the votes^1,3.

The structure means that buyers of the new shares would help pay for the AI race without gaining any added say over how the money is spent^1,3.

The products behind the spending featured heavily in the release coverage, including the Muse assistant, an AI charm device, VR glasses priced at $1299 and questions over teen addiction⁵. Zuckerberg demonstrated Muse, and attention centred on AI spending, advertising revenue and the stock’s reaction⁶.

What to watch

Meta launched Muse, its personal AI agent, after Zuckerberg identified AI agents as a potential new source of products and revenue⁹. Muse and agentic AI were the focus for investors heading into the report⁸.

One trading commentary described the earlier reporting date as a historically bullish move, backed by enthusiasm for the Muse models⁷.

The results also land in a nervous market for AI shares. The Nasdaq rose on Monday as investors rotated back into chip stocks, after fears over the sustainability of the AI boom drove the previous week’s selloff¹⁰.

The details that remain to be seen are the size and timing of any share sales, and how the tightened spending forecast compares with what investors had expected^1,3.