Meta aims to raise R$ 475 billion to expand its AI infrastructure

woman in black shirt wearing eyeglasses — Waddas Magalhães / Unsplash

Meta intends to raise up to R$ 475 billion through a stock sale to finance the expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, which includes data centers and cloud computing capacity.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp has initiated stock offerings of approximately R$ 175 billion and plans to sell up to R$ 300 billion additional shares starting in 2027.

The initial offering consists of common and convertible preferred shares. The second sales program will depend on the start of negotiations for new Class C shares, which will not have voting rights, expected in the first quarter of 2027.

Chip manufacturers Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom have expressed interest in purchasing up to R$ 25 billion in Class A common shares from Meta included in the offering.

The fundraising comes as the company increases spending to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic. Last week, Meta raised the minimum limit of its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 from R$ 130 billion to R$ 135 billion. The upper limit remained at R$ 145 billion.

The company has also committed to future spending of approximately R$ 4,125 trillion, primarily driven by investments in data centers, AI infrastructure, and cloud computing.

The increase in spending is already reflected in the financial results. In the third quarter, Meta reported negative free cash flow of R$ 10.6 billion, its first negative result in this indicator in over ten years. In the same period the previous year, it had reported positive cash flow of R$ 53.15 billion.

As of September 30, the company had R$ 412.25 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, slightly above R$ 404.6 billion in long-term debt.

Despite the financial pressure, revenue exceeded analysts' expectations in the third quarter. Meta reported revenue of R$ 323 billion, compared to a forecast of R$ 316.85 billion.

For the fourth quarter, the company estimates revenue between R$ 365 billion and R$ 380 billion.

Reported by Olhar Digital.