Meta Plans To Raise $25 Billion Through Bond Sale Amid Rising AI Spend: Report

• Meta is preparing a $25 billion bond sale across maturities of five to 40 years.
• The report comes after Meta stated that its capital expenditure guidance for 2025 is between $70 billion and $72 billion, during its third-quarter earnings call.
• The company added that capital expenditure in 2026 could exceed $100 billion.

Meta Platforms (META) is reportedly preparing to raise at least $25 billion through a multi-part bond sale, following disclosures of a sharp increase in AI-related spending during its third-quarter earnings. 

Meta’s stock tumbled more than 10% in pre-market trade, on track to hit levels last seen in June, and was the top trending ticker on Stocktwits early morning. Despite the dip in share price, retail sentiment on the platform surged to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘neutral’ over the past day, alongside chatter increasing to ‘extremely high’ from ‘normal ‘levels.

The offering, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, could include notes ranging from five to 40 years in maturity. Initial price indications for the 40-year note are around 1.4 percentage points above U.S. Treasuries. 

Proceeds from the sale are intended for general corporate purposes. Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are reported to be managing the bond issuance.

Wall Street Reacts To Meta’s Rising AI CapEx

Analysts have cut price targets and ratings on Meta, citing the company’s projected expense growth in 2026. Meta raised full-year capital expenditure guidance to $70 billion to $72 billion, signaling that spending could surpass $100 billion next year. Much of the outlay is directed toward AI data centers and computing infrastructure. 

CFO Susan Li said the company’s “compute needs have continued to expand meaningfully,” with plans to “invest aggressively” in both internal capacity and third-party cloud services.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg framed the strategy as front-loading costs to secure industry-leading computing power for AI models and products, prioritizing future scalability and AI leadership.

Analysts Cite Concerns

Bernstein lowered its price target to $870 from $900 while maintaining an ‘Outperform’ rating, noting strong AI-driven revenue growth but cautioning that rising capital expenditures could prompt costly recalls of past investments, such as the Metaverse. Benchmark downgraded Meta to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’, highlighting near-term uncertainty in returns from AI spending and potential ROIC declines through 2027.

Meta’s stock has gained more than 27% this year and upwards of 29% over the past 12 months, as of Wednesday’s closing.

Read also: Bitcoin Dips, Triggers $800 Million In Crypto Liquidations After Powell’s December Warning

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