
The Verge: Meta to create a new class of shares to fund AI push
Meta says it's issuing a new class of shares to fund its AI initiatives. As part of its third-quarter earnings report released on Wednesday, the company says the non-voting stock will also go toward potential acquisitions and employee compensation, with trading beginning in 2027. "The scale of investment required to compete, sustain growth, expand infrastructure, and pursue new strategic initiatives amidst the AI transformation taking place in the industry is significant," Meta
Meta is creating a new class of non-voting shares to raise funding for its artificial intelligence initiatives, as well as for acquisitions and employee compensation, with trading set to begin in 2027. The company stated that the scale of investment needed to compete in the AI transformation taking place across the industry is significant, and the new shares will expand its funding tools and give it flexibility to invest in its business. Meta has been spending billions on the AI race through building data centers and developing AI models, and expects capital expenditures between 135 billion and 145 billion dollars this year.
Want to go deeper than the news? Explore live, cohort-based AI courses taught by practitioners.
Browse AI courses on Maven
OpenAI is acquiring Orchestra Bio to bring AI-powered operations to life sciences R&D, helping biopharma teams accelerate drug development and advance new treatments.
Also reported by TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE and The Decoder

Meeting note-taking tool Otter.ai announced on Tuesday that it has raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), which provides capital to startups without diluting equity and gets returns on the results of marketing spend. Otter.ai said that it will use these funds for enterprise growth, go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and product innovation. […]
Also reported by SiliconANGLE
Artificial intelligence research lab Flapping Airplanes Inc. today announced it has raised $1 billion in new funding, about a year after it was founded. Investors valued the startup at $6 billion in the deal, Bloomberg reported. No commercial product has come out of the lab yet. Flapping Airplanes is trying to build AI models that […] The post Year-old AI research lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a reported $6B valuation appeared first on SiliconANGLE.

Blacksmith, a platform that lets companies build and test AI code more effectively, just announced a $66 million Series C round led by Sequoia that values the company at $1 billion.
Town.com Inc., an artificial intelligence agent startup laser focused on getting work done by collaborating with other AI agents, revealed today that it has raised $108 million in a new funding at a $1 billion valuation. The Series B round was led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures, and saw participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Serena […] The post AI work assistant startup Town secures unicorn status after raising $108M just weeks after launching appeared first on SiliconANGLE.

In August, Nscale and Anthropic announced a $45 billion compute deal. The two companies are reportedly discussing yet another deal of the same magnitude.