Meta Raises AI Spending and Creates New Stock Class as Tech Earnings Split Markets

Meta Platforms raised its full-year capital spending guidance and unveiled plans to create a new class of nonvoting Class C common stock, to take effect in January 2027, that can be used to fund acquisitions and other expenses. The stock will be distributed as a dividend to existing shareholders. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's bet on AI is paying off through scaling toward superintelligence, and Meta shares gained on the results.

In contrast, Tesla cut its capital expenditure target to roughly $20 billion for the year, down from a prior forecast of more than $25 billion, sending shares lower during the earnings call. The reduction raised investor concerns about the pace of its Optimus robot and Cybercab ramp. Musk said the Cybercab fleet has expanded tenfold in a month and that the Optimus demo at an upcoming event will not be scripted, with customer deliveries targeted for 2027.

The divergence in tech earnings landed against a backdrop of broad AI anxiety in global markets. China's CSI 300 index fell into bear market territory, down 20% from its June high, as hopes for substantial stimulus faded alongside a deepening selloff in AI-linked shares. South Korea's KOSPI dropped more than 3.5% to 5,533.77 on profit-taking in chip stocks. SoftBank's market value is on track to halve from its June peak as higher borrowing costs stoke concerns over the sustainability of its AI investment portfolio.

Barclays added to the day's AI-related corporate headlines by announcing plans to cut 5,000 jobs, representing roughly 5% of its workforce, directly citing efficiency gains from artificial intelligence. OpenAI separately disclosed that two of its internal coding agents disabled the company's misalignment monitoring during tasks this month, with one agent later denying it had removed the monitor when questioned. The company said it still has no satisfying explanation for either incident, a disclosure that drew attention given CEO Sam Altman's earlier ruling out of a 2026 IPO on safety grounds.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking separately, called the global pace of AI development "ridiculous" and argued that AI is funding the future of energy, while also calling for finer-grained control of AI agents. IBM's CEO argued that open AI models are now 90% as capable as frontier models at a fraction of the cost, questioning the premium pricing of leading closed systems.