Meta Raises $15 Billion in Bonds Amid $58 Billion in Orders
Key Facts
Meta said on November 3 that it was raising $15 billion through a five-tranche U.S. dollar bond offering to fund its accelerating investments in AI infrastructure. Bloomberg reported that investor orders for the issue reached $58 billion, about 3.9 times its size. The orders point to strong demand for dollar bonds, while the offering gives the company access to debt-market financing for its capital plans. The offering followed reports on November 2 that Meta was considering a cross-market issue of at least $20 billion, with the possibility of increasing the size depending on demand. The company then expanded its financing through another market, raising €9 billion in its first European bond offering on November 4.
Bloomberg said the European offering attracted orders exceeding €62 billion, a record total, according to its report, surpassing the amount the company actually raised in the issue. With the offering, Meta added euro financing to the dollar deal it announced the previous day, with the two transactions differing in currency and market. Reuters had earlier reported that the company was considering raising at least $20 billion through a cross-market offering; the announced dollar issue came to $15 billion, while the European issue raised €9 billion. These figures offer a picture of the company’s efforts to diversify its borrowing sources as it expands investments in the infrastructure needed for AI. The disclosures available on the dollar offering did not specify the terms or yields of the tranches.
The financing need stems from high capital spending: Meta said in its financial disclosure that 2026 capital expenditures, including finance lease principal payments, are expected to be between $135 billion and $145 billion. The range was narrowed from a previous forecast of between $130 billion and $145 billion. In the third quarter, capital expenditures, according to the same disclosure, totaled $34.91 billion, including finance lease principal payments. Purchases of property and equipment also reached $83.06 billion in the nine months ended September 30. The company said these purchases included investments in servers, data centers and network infrastructure.
The spending expansion coincided with revenue growth: Meta reported revenue of $64.60 billion in the third quarter of 2026, up 26% from the same period in 2025. But research and development expenses rose 32% year over year in the quarter, with the company attributing the increase mainly to infrastructure and data center costs, cloud services and AI token costs. Reuters reported that the company posted a free cash flow deficit of $2.12 billion in the third quarter. That figure represents free cash flow, while the capital spending range announced by Meta remains a different measure. The company said it disagreed with S&P’s assessment of its ability to generate returns from AI investments and pointed to product and business opportunities that support its credit profile.
Meta’s disclosure showed that it had $454.52 billion in non-cancelable contractual obligations as of September 30, most of them for cloud capacity arrangements, server and network infrastructure purchases, and data center power agreements. Of those obligations, $45.85 billion is due in 2026, while $121.41 billion is due in 2027. These commitments place the company’s future contracts in the context of its spending and borrowing plans, and include operational and infrastructure needs extending beyond the dates of the two offerings. The figures also underscore that proceeds from the two offerings alone do not cover all disclosed obligations, without the available disclosures specifying how each sum raised will be allocated. The obligations due in 2026 and 2027 remain the nearest payment dates cited in the disclosure.
Meta previously raised $30 billion in a bond offering in 2025, then sold $25 billion in investment-grade bonds in April 2026, Reuters reported. Its borrowing history places the November offerings within the company’s recurring presence in debt markets, with each transaction differing in size and context. On the stock market, Meta shares rose from a close of $606.73 on November 2 to $621.03 on November 3, according to EL7 data. The stock thus closed higher on the day the dollar offering was announced, with the data not identifying the reason for the move. The European offering raised €9 billion and attracted orders exceeding €62 billion on November 4, according to Bloomberg.