Meta has launched a $35 billion share sale. The other $60 billion is a plan, and it is not agreed

Meta said on 26 October that it has launched two public offerings, together about $35 billion. One is about $22.5 billion of Class A common stock, sold in connection with forward-sale agreements, so the cash from those shares arrives when the forwards are settled, not necessarily today. The other is 250 million depositary shares, each a twentieth of a new Series A mandatory convertible preferred share, which the company puts at about $12.5 billion. The heading on the release is that this supports continued investment in AI infrastructure and what Meta calls personal superintelligence. The legal use of the proceeds, in the same release, is general corporate purposes.

The larger number in circulation is not money raised. Meta says it plans an at-the-market programme of about $60 billion in a new non-voting Class C share, after that share begins trading. It also says it has not entered any agreement for that programme, that the timing, size and terms have not been determined, and that there can be no assurance the programme will be established at all. Adding $60 billion to $35 billion and calling the sum a raise is a step the release itself refuses. Reuters reported that Class C trading is expected in the first quarter of 2027. Expected, by a wire, is not a listing date.

The spending is already larger than the offering

In the same announcement Meta says it expects $135 billion to $145 billion of capital expenditure in 2026. It generated $97 billion of operating cash flow in the first three quarters, and it held about $82 billion of cash and marketable securities at the end of the third quarter. Reuters, reading the quarterly filing, put long-term debt at $80.92 billion and future commitments, mostly data centres and cloud, at about $825 billion. A $35 billion offering does not fund a $140 billion year. It is a slice of it, and the slice has been launched, not closed.