Meta Creates Non-Voting Stock to Fund Its AI Expansion

Meta will issue a new class of non-voting stock to fund its artificial intelligence buildout while keeping Mark Zuckerberg's grip on the company. Chief Financial Officer Susan Li confirmed the plan on Wednesday during Meta's third-quarter earnings call, following an earlier report by Semafor.

The mechanism is simple. Non-voting shares give their owners economic exposure to Meta but no say in how the company is run. Li said the company plans to "create a new class of non-voting capital stock, which will be distributed to all existing shareholders through a stock dividend."

What does the new stock class actually do?

Li explained the purpose directly. Meta, she said, "created this new class of shares with the purpose of creating a publicly traded non-voting stock usable for capital raising, employee compensation, acquisitions, and other general corporate purposes while preserving the voting power of existing Class A and B shareholders."

In practice, the structure lets Meta sell equity, pay staff and buy companies without diluting the votes held by existing Class A and B shareholders. Li said the shares will allow the company to maintain its current "founder-led structure."

They will also, in her words, "expand its funding tools and give us flexibility to invest behind the unprecedented momentum we're seeing across every part of our business, driven by AI."

That flexibility comes at a price. Meta's costs and expenses rose 68% year over year in the quarter, far outpacing revenue growth. The non-voting stock gives the company another way to finance that spending without asking shareholders for permission.

How strong were the earnings?

Revenue reached $64 billion in the third quarter, up 26% from a year earlier, beating Wall Street expectations. Zuckerberg's AI products appear to be pulling users in at speed.

"In just a month and a half, more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada have set up Muse personal agents," Zuckerberg said during the call. "Growth continues to be strong, and we have been number one in the App Store almost every day."

He framed the moment as a turning point for the product. "Now that Muse has clear product-market fit, we are entering a new phase and a more operational phase that is focused on scaling it," Zuckerberg said. He later claimed Meta expects the product to eventually "serve billions of people."

Meta has shipped a steady stream of AI releases over the past year:

• Muse Spark and Muse Glimmer, released earlier this year
• Muse Wonder and Muse Spark Open, an open-weight model whose parameters outsiders can use and build on, added in recent weeks
• Muse Code, a coding agent for software developers
• A new line of cuddly avatars for the Meta Muse assistant, announced at Meta Connect, designed to make the AI more relatable and, as the company hopes, meme-able

What about Reality Labs and legal risk?

Reality Labs, the division behind Meta's AR glasses, VR headsets and VR software, still loses money — just less than it used to. Meta said in its earnings report that it expects the division's losses to shrink from 2025 levels to between $18 billion and $19 billion.

Legal exposure remains the other open flank. "We continue to monitor active legal and regulatory matters that could significantly impact our business and financial results," Li said. "For example, we continue to see scrutiny on youth-related issues in several markets, and have a number of youth-related trials scheduled in the coming months in the United States."

Why does the stock structure matter?

The move mirrors a classic playbook: separate money from votes, raise the first without touching the second. For a company spending 68% more than a year ago while pouring capital into AI models, headsets and agents, the new instrument buys room to maneuver.

With 10 million Muse agents set up in six weeks and trials looming, Meta has built itself a funding tool sized for the next phase of that fight.