Meta is considering raising tens of billions in a stock offering to fund Mark Zuckerberg's AI ambitions, following Google's record $85bn share deal this week. Executives have been exploring "creative" ways to raise cash as Meta prepares to boost AI-related capital expenditures to $145bn this year. The discussions intensified after Alphabet's equity raising was increased by $5bn due to strong investor demand.

Meta shares fell 7% in US trading on Friday after the FT reported on the fundraising talks. CFO Susan Li leads discussions alongside Dina Powell McCormick, who joined as president in January to overhaul Meta's AI infrastructure approach. The company has already raised $55bn in debt and halted share buybacks while cutting costs through layoffs and hiring freezes.

Meta's potential equity sale comes amid a frenzy of market activity with SpaceX's IPO set to raise as much as $86bn next week. AI groups Anthropic and OpenAI are also preparing Wall Street debuts expected to raise tens of billions. Analysts suggest rivals Microsoft and Amazon may also consider equity sales as data center spending surges.