Meta plans to introduce non-voting shares to fund AI without diluting Zuckerberg's control.

BlockBeats news, October 22: Meta announced plans to introduce new non-voting shares, indicating that the company may rely heavily on new stock issuance to fund its artificial intelligence (AI) buildout. The plan will allow the company to issue new shares—for acquisitions, attracting top AI talent, and paying for chips—without diluting Mark Zuckerberg's control.

Alphabet took a similar step in 2014, implementing a 2-for-1 stock split and introducing non-voting shares alongside super-voting shares, keeping co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's combined control at just over 50%. This made it easier for the company to issue $85 billion in new shares earlier this year to pay for AI investments; half of the new shares carried no voting rights.

The decision was driven by "high capital expenditures from AI research." Financial report data shows that Meta's capital expenditure guidance lower bound was raised from $130 billion to $135 billion, with an upper limit of $145 billion. Third-quarter capital expenditures exceeded $40 billion (less than $19 billion in the same period last year), free cash flow was -$2.12 billion, compared with $10.63 billion in the same period last year.