Ringing The Bell: Meta Plunges On Report It May Sell "Tens Of Billions" In New Stock

They don't ring the bell at the top, but they sure do sell a lot of stock.

With SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI looking to IPO hundreds of billions in common stock (not counting even more hundreds of billions in lock up expirations that will hit the market soon)...

... coupled with Google's record $80 Billion follow on offering (of which half was a memestock-esque At The Market offering direct to retail), suddenly the cash-incinerating AI companies - already full to the gills with SPV and various other forms of debt - are realizing that if they don't move fast they will miss the boat.

And sure enough, FT reports that arguably the biggest cash burner of the lot, Meta, is considering raising tens of billions of dollars in a stock offering as it seeks new sources of capital to fund Mark Zuckerberg’s vast ambitions in AI, following the launch of Google’s record $85bn share deal this week.

According to the report, company execs have been exploring “creative” ways to raise cash as it prepares to sharply boost its AI-related capital expenditures to as much as $145bn this year and even higher in 2027, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The discussions intensified after the success of Google parent Alphabet’s equity raising this week, which was increased by $5bn after strong investor demand, but - as noted above - GOOGL has a much more viable cash flow profile than Meta, which will be FCF negative this year.

The news sent META stock plunging to the lowest level since early April. 

Meta’s decision to consider a fresh share sale comes amid a frenzy of activity in US equity capital markets, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX set to hold its initial public offering next week and AI groups Anthropic and OpenAI also working on plans for massive Wall Street debuts. 

Mega tech companies have also tapped debt markets - which as we said last year AI is also now a bubble - as they rush to finance AI infrastructure, including chips and data centers.

Meta CFO Susan Li is leading the talks over the potential share sale alongside Dina Powell McCormick, who moved from Meta’s board to take a more active role as president in January. Powell McCormick has been tasked with overhauling Meta’s approach to AI infrastructure and financing, with a focus on longer-term planning as it enters the most capital-intensive period in its history.

Meta must find new ways to fund the huge data centers needed to train and run advanced AI models to fulfil Zuckerberg’s vision for “personal superintelligence” delivered through Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as a family of AI-powered wearables such as smart-glasses and voice pendants.

Meta has not yet hired banks and ultimately may not issue new stock. One person cautioned that it was “premature” to say that the company had decided what to do and all financing options remain on the table.  A Meta spokesperson said the share sales talks were “pure speculation”, but added “we’ve been clear that huge opportunities lie ahead in AI, and we’ll continue focusing on raising capital in the most flexible ways to support that”.

A person familiar with Meta’s discussions said the group had looked at the structure of Alphabet’s capital raising, which included “mandatory convertible preferred issuance”. This allows it to raise cash immediately, but defers the stock issuance potentially for years.

According to the FT report, Goldman Sachs would be in a strong position to win the Meta mandate considering Powell McCormick spent 16 years at the investment bank. The Wall Street bank led the Google deal announced this week. 

As noted above, Meta exces are conscious that they will have to move fast if they decide to raise equity to ensure capacity and investor enthusiasm remain amid a historic glut of activity in US public markets. SpaceX is set to raise as much as $86bn next week in an IPO that would value the group at $1.78tn. Claude maker Anthropic has confidentially filed for its own listing and rival OpenAI is also preparing to go public. Both are expected to raise tens of billions and attract $1tn-plus valuations.

Analysts say that Meta’s Big Tech rivals such as Microsoft and Amazon are also likely to be considering their own stock sales as their data centre spending surges and investors question the impact on their balance sheets.

Meta has already raised fresh capital through new means and innovative structures. The company had less than $10bn in long-term debt as recently as 2022, but borrowed $55bn in globe-trotting deals in recent months. In October, it raised $27bn in a bond sale through a joint venture with private capital firm Blue Owl to build a Manhattan-sized data centre in Louisiana dubbed “Hyperion”. Something we warned would soon become an off balance sheet template for all Mag 7s.

As a reminder, META is already neck deep in off-balance sheet debt. Here is a schematic of its $27.3 billion SPV with Blue Owl "Project Beignet" for the Hyperion data center. None of this touches META's balance sheet.

Expect hundreds of billions of these in 2026 https://t.co/794EgSiiZ9 pic.twitter.com/7hMyVW6Lno

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 29, 2026

Meta has also been conserving capital by cutting costs and other means. Last month it fired 8,000 people and stopped hiring for 6,000 roles.The company also halted share buybacks in late 2025 after repurchasing its shares regularly since 2017.

Google paused its buyback programme in the first quarter after repurchasing about $45bn last year, according to FactSet data and company filings.

Finally, those wondering why the Mag 7s are rushing to sell stock instead of do much cheaper debt offerings, we gave the answer exactly a month ago: "Banks Are Choking": The AI Debt Bubble Has Started To Burst.

Which only leaves equity sales, and just like that what went up in the past 2 months, is rapidly coming down.