Meta's Stock Plummets 3.03% as $2B Data Center Divestment Drives 52.51% Volume Drop to Sixth in Market Activity

On August 1, 2025, Meta (META) closed with a 3.03% decline, marking its lowest performance in the day's trading session. The stock saw a trading volume of $14.33 billion, a 52.51% drop from the previous day, ranking sixth in overall market activity.

Meta announced plans to divest $2 billion in data center assets to reduce the financial burden of its AI infrastructure expansion. The move aligns with broader industry trends as tech firms seek external partners to share costs for generative AI development. The company reclassified $2.04 billion in land and construction assets as "held-for-sale" in its quarterly filing, with the assets expected to be transferred to third parties within 12 months for co-development. CFO Susan Li emphasized that while internal funding remains primary, external financing could enhance flexibility amid evolving infrastructure demands.

Meta also revised its annual capital expenditure forecast upward by $2 billion, now projecting $66–72 billion in spending. This adjustment follows stronger-than-expected ad revenue driven by AI-enhanced targeting and content delivery. CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined ambitions to build AI "superclusters," with each facility comparable in scale to Manhattan. Despite rising infrastructure costs, executives noted that AI-driven revenue gains are helping offset these expenses.

A strategy of purchasing high-volume stocks and holding them for one day yielded a 166.71% return from 2022 to the present, significantly outperforming the benchmark’s 29.18% return. This highlights the potential of liquidity concentration in capturing short-term volatility, though risks from rapid market shifts persist.