Shares of Meta Platforms tumbled roughly 7% on the Buenos Aires exchange to ARS 44,340 after the company paired a strong quarterly earnings beat with a capital-spending plan so aggressive it spooked even its most loyal backers. Meta Pours $135 Billion Into AI and Burns Cash for the First Time in a Decade — Can Advertising Alone Foot the Bill?

Shares slid roughly 7% after Meta Platforms paired a revenue beat with two announcements that rattled investors: a raised full-year capital-spending target and a plan to create non-voting stock that could eventually fund "hundreds of billions of dollars" in AI infrastructure.

  • The Numbers Looked Good Until You Read the Fine Print. Q3 revenue reached $64.6 billion, up 26% year-over-year, surpassing analysts' $63.3 billion consensus.

Adjusted earnings hit $7.40 per share after stripping out a $9.89 billion litigation charge. But the headline that moved the stock wasn't revenue — it was spending. Full-year capex guidance was raised to $135 billion–$145 billion , with the upper bound roughly double last year's $72 billion. That kind of acceleration means profits are being plowed back into data centers and chips faster than they're being earned.

  • Meta Is Now Burning Cash — a First Since the Early 2010s. Free cash flow turned negative at -$2.12 billion in Q3, as $34.91 billion in capital spending outpaced cash from operations. For a company that historically generated tens of billions in surplus cash, this marks a striking reversal. Unlike Microsoft or Amazon, which spread AI spending across cloud, retail, and enterprise businesses, Meta's $135 billion infrastructure bill is concentrated almost entirely on ads and AI assistants — "underwritten by a single monetization vehicle."

  • Non-Voting Shares Give Zuckerberg a Funding Tool — Without Surrendering Control. Meta announced a new non-voting Class C share, effective January 19, 2027, designed to raise capital for AI without diluting Mark Zuckerberg's 60.6% voting power.

Future capital raises, acquisitions, or employee stock grants can use these shares "without creating a single additional vote."

The filing disclosed management forecasts showing a need to raise "hundreds of billions of dollars." That language unnerved shareholders because it signals current cash flow will not cover the plan.

  • The Core Ad Business Is Strong, but Investors Want a Payback Timeline. Ad impressions rose 10% and average price per ad climbed 14% year-over-year.

Q4 revenue guidance of $73 billion–$76 billion also beat expectations. Yet the market is now "more focused on payback timelines than on top-line beats." Until Meta proves its AI spending produces revenue streams beyond better ad targeting, every capex increase will read as a risk — not an investment.