Meta Confirms Non-Voting Stock Class to Fund Its AI Expansion

Meta confirmed on Wednesday that it will create a new class of non-voting stock, distributed to existing shareholders as a dividend, to bankroll its AI buildout while keeping Zuckerberg's control intact. The company confirmed Semafor's earlier reporting during its third-quarter earnings call.

CFO Susan 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." She explained that Meta "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."

What does the new share class change?

In practice, it gives Meta a fresh financing lever without diluting founder control. Li said the structure preserves Meta's current "founder-led" setup and will "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." For advertisers and creators watching Meta's AI spending, that means the capital taps stay open for the foreseeable future.

The financial backdrop explains why. Meta beat Wall Street expectations with $64 billion in Q3 revenue, up 26% year over year. But costs and expenses climbed 68% in the same period — a gap that shows just how expensive the AI pivot has become.

Reality Labs, the division behind Meta's AR glasses, VR headsets and VR software, keeps burning cash, though less than before. Meta said it expects the division's losses to shrink from 2025 levels to between $18 billion and $19 billion.

How are Meta's AI products actually performing?

Meta has shipped a steady stream of AI models this year: Muse Spark and Muse Glimmer early on, then Muse Wonder and Muse Spark Open (an open-weight model whose underlying parameters anyone can use and build on), plus a coding agent called Muse Code. At Meta Connect, it also rolled out a line of cuddly avatars for its Meta Muse assistant, aiming to make the AI feel more relatable — and meme-able.

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

"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 added, saying Meta expects the product to eventually "serve billions of people."

Take the engagement claims as directional rather than audited: App Store rankings and sign-up counts signal traction, but Meta didn't disclose retention, usage depth, or monetization for Muse.

What could still go wrong?

Legal and regulatory pressure hasn't gone away. "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."

With a new funding instrument in hand, record revenue, and losses narrowing, Meta has lined up the capital structure for its AI era — the question now is how fast it can scale Muse before regulators or costs catch up.