Meta Platforms Inc. boosted its capital spending outlook and announced plans for a new class of nonvoting stock, escalating its already-stratospheric bet on artificial intelligence.

Capital expenditures will be $135 billion to $145 billion in 2026, the social-media giant said during its quarterly earnings report Wednesday, raising the bottom end of the range from $130 billion.

The new class of shares, meanwhile, will be distributed to existing investors through a stock dividend. Holders will get one share of the new stock in what will essentially be a two-for-one stock split, Meta said. It expects trading of the new shares to begin in January.

The stock will be used for capital fundraising, employee compensation and potential acquisitions, Meta said.

The moves show that Meta has confidence that its spending on artificial intelligence will bear fruit. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has struggled to persuade investors to accept the company’s ballooning expenses for ambitious AI bets. But in recent months, Meta has made headway with its technology.

“Our investments are paying off, the core business is strong, and we’re seeing velocity across the board,” Zuckerberg said in Wednesday’s report.

Meta shares rose more than 6% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. They had gained about 6% this year through the close in New York.

As part of the report, Meta said fourth-quarter revenue would be $73 billion to $76 billion. Analysts had estimated $73.6 billion on average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Third-quarter revenue rose 26% to $64.6 billion, topping the $63.3 billion estimate. Earnings amounted to $3.83 a share in the period, beating the $3.57 estimate.

Over the last year and a half, Zuckerberg has refocused the company’s efforts on advancing in the AI race. The push has included committing hundreds of billions of dollars to build out the infrastructure needed to support its models and rebuilding its AI unit under head Alexandr Wang.

Earlier this month, Meta launched Muse Wonder, a long-awaited new AI model with “frontier capabilities” that its leadership said put it on par with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic PBC’s Claude when it comes to coding or working through financial or legal questions. If Meta’s claims hold up to outside testing, and Muse Wonder gains traction with researchers and developers, it would mark a significant turnaround for the company, whose models last year fell flat in Silicon Valley.

Meta also recently launched Muse, a personalized AI assistant designed to automate a range of tasks for consumers, including shopping, buying movie tickets and scheduling appointments. Muse quickly rose to the top of mobile app charts.

Meta still has a lot of spending left to do before the end of the year. Even though the midpoint of its capital expenditures outlook is $140 billion, the Menlo Park, California-based company has only spent about $86 billion through the first nine months.

Meta also signaled that it will take longer to see returns from some of its newer AI investments, even as its core business helps absorb the cost.

“While these investments will take longer to generate returns than those in our core business,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Li said, “the breadth of monetization opportunities and internal efficiencies gives us confidence in their long-term potential.”

Meta is cutting costs elsewhere as it bulldozes money into AI. Headcount was down 15% year over year following significant job cuts, and the company has pledged to narrow losses at Reality Labs, its hardware division. Meta expects Reality Labs losses of as much as $19 billion this year, before falling to around $15 billion in 2027 as it reallocates spending toward other priorities — “primarily AI.”

In announcing the new stock class, Meta also said the nonvoting shares would ensure that Zuckerberg continues to lead the company “into the next era.”

©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.