Meta raises AI spending floor and plans nonvoting Class C stock

Meta wants to spend more on artificial intelligence. It also wants to keep the steering wheel exactly where it is. On October 21, 2026, Meta Platforms raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year and unveiled a new class of nonvoting stock. The numbers behind the announcement Meta now expects 2026 capital spending between $135 billion and $145 billion. The previous range was $130 billion to $145 billion. The ceiling didn’t move. The floor came up by $5 billion. The money is going toward AI infrastructure, meaning the chips and data centers needed to train large models. It is also funding development of Muse, Meta’s consumer AI agent. The higher outlook comes as Meta faces growing competition from leading AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic. The quarterly results gave Meta some cover for the bigger budget. Third-quarter 2026 revenue came in at $64.60 billion, ahead of the $63.37 billion Wall Street had expected. Meta also issued fourth-quarter revenue guidance above consensus estimates. The company pointed to encouraging early performance from Muse and the release of new models as support for that outlook. A new share class with no say Meta plans to create a new cl...