Steep bill for AI buildout punishes Meta, other tech favorites
Investors sold Meta Platforms and other companies central to the AI trade a day after Meta said it would issue a new class of shares to help raise funds for data centers and other AI infrastructure. Meta fell 8%, its largest drop since July, SpaceX declined 9% and Nvidia dropped 4%, while Lam Research plunged 12% after its results and sent the semiconductor index down 6.5%; Meta raised the low end of its annual spending forecast to $135 billion from $130 billion and reported negative third-quarter free cash flow of $2.12 billion, against positive free cash flow of $10.63 billion a year earlier.