Meta Shares Plunge Sharply Due to AI Costs

On Friday, Meta's shares dropped by more than 5 percent. This was caused by a report in the Financial Times stating that the company is planning to issue tens of billions of dollars in new shares to finance artificial intelligence (AI) projects. According to the publication, the company is exploring scenarios for raising additional capital. Ixbt.com reports .

A Meta representative called these reports "pure speculation" and emphasized that no final decision on issuing securities has been made yet. Nevertheless, concerns among investors about the huge expenses tech giants are incurring for AI infrastructure are growing. For example, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has also increased its investment plans to $85 billion.

In April of this year, Meta raised its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 to $145 billion. Alphabet increased this figure to $190 billion. Market analysts evaluate the strategies of the two companies differently: Alphabet, with a strong cloud business like Google Cloud, is gaining more investor confidence.

Over the past year, Alphabet shares have risen by more than 115 percent, while Meta shares have dropped by approximately 13 percent, recording one of the weakest performances in the technology sector. This difference reflects investors' doubts about how quickly investments in artificial intelligence will start generating returns.