Meta's board of directors approved the creation of a new class of publicly traded, non-voting Class C common stock to raise capital for developing and serving artificial intelligence (AI) models. The announcement was made on October 21, 2026 alongside the company's third-quarter financial report, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A non-voting share means its holder gets a stake in the company's profits but does not vote in board elections or on other corporate decisions. Such a structure is a common way to raise large sums from the market while preserving founders' control.

How the new Class C will work

The new shares will be distributed as a dividend to holders of existing Class A (one share, one vote) and supervoting Class B shares. The effective date is January 19, 2027. In practical terms, this will act like a 2:1 stock split relative to the Class A share price: each shareholder will receive additional Class C shares, but they will not confer extra votes.

In other words, after the split the number of shares in an investor's hands will grow while the share price falls proportionally — total market value stays unchanged. The difference is that the newly issued shares carry no voting rights, so the balance of votes in the company remains as before.

Importantly, this change will not affect CEO Mark Zuckerberg's voting control or other shareholders' voting power. Meta said in its statement that creating the new class "will continue the founder-led model that has driven the company's success since its inception."

The quarter's numbers

Meta reported third-quarter revenue of $64.6 billion, a 26% year-over-year increase that beat analysts' expectations. But net income of $9.8 billion came in well below the $17.2 billion forecast, weighed down by heavy AI infrastructure spending.

The company raised the low end of its full-year 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $135 billion (from $130 billion; the high end unchanged at $145 billion) and reported negative free cash flow of $2.1 billion — the first in its history. Fourth-quarter revenue guidance was $73–76 billion, the high end above analyst expectations, and the CFO expects continued aggressive investment into 2027. Shares rose about 5% in after-hours trading.

Attention now turns to how the market will price the new share structure and whether Meta can sustain the pace of AI capital spending.