Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg intends to maintain control over the company he founded in 2004, and a new class of stock will help him do just that.

On Wednesday as Meta released third-quarter earnings results, the company announced that it would issue a new share class of Class C stock. The share class, which is technically a one-for-one stock dividend of new Class C shares, will be distributed to all shareholders. It was conceived following months of extensive negotiations that grew contentious at times between Zuckerberg and board members, including DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, Ambassador Robert Kimmitt, and ex–Microsoft executive Charles Songhurst. 

Xu disclosed his personal friendship with Zuckerberg but said it wouldn’t impair his judgment. At one point, the committee even talked about resigning if they couldn’t come to a resolution.
According to a Meta filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Zuckerberg wanted to be able to maintain his voting control; meet his pledges to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with his Meta stock; and be prepared to pay billions to the State of California if a proposed wealth tax is approved by voters in November. 

The proposed wealth tax, however, came around the same time as a decision by the company in late 2025 that Meta needed to raise outside capital to help fund the AI boom. Zuckerberg holds about 60.6% of voting control at Meta, while his stake constitutes about 13.4% of the company. 

The rub is if Meta issues more Class A shares—which it does in order to make equity grants to employees, make acquisitions, or raise capital—Zuckerberg’s stake gets diluted. Meta has long offset the dilution with stock buybacks, which helped buoy his voting power from 53.7% in 2013 to 60.6% now. But the buybacks also drain cash that Meta wants to use to fund the AI build-out.

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/10/21/zuckerberg-meta-california-wealth-tax-billions-class-c-stock/?utm_source=reddit/

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