Meta Sells $15B of Bonds, Draws $58B in Orders

Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, sold $15 billion of bonds on Tuesday, 3 November, to help pay for the data centres behind its AI push. According to the company's pricing term sheet filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal was split into five tranches: $3.25 billion due 2031, $3.25 billion due 2033, $4 billion due 2036, $1.75 billion due 2046 and $2.75 billion due 2056.

Investors asked for about $58 billion of the notes, nearly four times the amount on offer, people familiar with the deal told reporters, according to Briefs Finance and Korea's JKN. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley led the sale. The bonds settle on 5 November.

Borrowing is getting more expensive

The coupons show how much more lenders now want from AI spenders. The five-year notes yield 5.85% and the 30-year notes 7.53%, between 1.1 and 2.2 percentage points above US government bonds of the same length. Briefs Finance reports that the 30-year spread is about 0.9 percentage points wider than on a similar note Meta sold in April, when a $25 billion bond deal drew about $96 billion of orders.

The term sheet also lists Meta's credit ratings as Aa3 with a stable outlook from Moody's and AA- with a negative outlook from S&P. CNBC reports that S&P moved its outlook to negative on Friday, citing "uncertainty" about Meta's heavy capital spending and negative free cash flow, which was minus $2.12 billion in the last quarter. Meta has guided to capital expenditure of $135 billion to $145 billion for 2026.

Related · StartupsOracle Raises $20B in a Day, Its Whole Budget to 2030Five days after capping new funding at $20 billion until 2030, Oracle sold $10 billion of shares and $10 billion of bonds to pay for its AI cloud.

Part of a bigger raise

The bond sale is the latest step in a fast run of fundraising. On 26 October Meta agreed to sell 250 million depositary shares in a 6.50% mandatory convertible preferred stock, which its prospectus put at about $12.5 billion of net proceeds; the underwriters took a further 37.5 million shares on 29 October, adding about $1.87 billion. At the same time, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs sold 40 million Meta shares under forward sale agreements at about $622.92 each, which Meta expects to bring in roughly $24.9 billion when the forwards settle.

CNBC reports that these offerings are the first part of a $95 billion equity plan for AI, with $35 billion from underwritten offerings and $60 billion through an at-the-market share programme.

The dollar bonds are not the end of it. Meta's preliminary prospectus said it might launch euro-denominated notes at the same time, and on Wednesday it opened books on its first ever euro bond, in six tranches running from 4 to 38 years, Investing.com reports. People familiar with the plan told Briefs Finance that the dollar and euro sales together could total at least $20 billion.

Meta's shares rose 2.7% on Tuesday after falling in 12 of the previous 14 sessions, according to CNBC. Meta did not comment on the sale. Oracle made a similar move a day earlier, raising $20 billion in shares and bonds in a single day.