Meta plans to introduce new non-voting stock, the company announced, which suggests it’s likely to lean heavily on new share sales to fund its AI buildout.
The plan, earlier reported by Semafor, will allow the company to issue new stock — for acquisitions, to lure top AI talent, and to pay for chips — without diluting Mark Zuckerberg’s control.
Alphabet made a similar move in 2014, executing a 2-for-1 stock split that introduced non-voting shares alongside super-voting shares, which allowed the combined control of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to remain at just over 50%. That made it easier for the company to issue $85 billion of new stock earlier this year to pay for AI investments; half of the new shares carry no voting rights.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment.
Big tech companies have historically been able to balance out the new stock they issue by buying back shares in the market. But they have paused stock repurchases as the cost of their AI investments mount, and now find themselves as net issuers of shares, which risks diluting insiders’ stakes.