GE Vernova Falls 10.6% as Meta's Bigger AI Spending Plan Stokes Financing Worries; Vertiv and Eaton Slide

GEV fell 10.6% to $827.42 on Thursday, October 22, leading a selloff in AI power and grid equipment stocks the day after META raised its AI spending outlook. VRT dropped 7.8% and ETN 6.3%, while the broader S&P 500 was down about 1.4% in afternoon trading. Meta itself closed down 7.0%.

The trigger was not weaker demand but the cost of it. Meta's Q3 results on October 21 topped revenue expectations, but the company raised its AI spending outlook, indicated aggressive investment continuing beyond 2026, and reported negative free cash flow for the quarter. Asked about funding, CFO Susan Li said Meta has no specific financing plans to announce and is "quite early" in its budget and capacity plans for next year. That revived the question of how the AI buildout will be paid for and pushed investors toward Treasurys and defensive stocks, according to Benzinga.

GE Vernova took the hardest hit because the market ties it most closely to large power-generation orders from data center builders. The company carried a $176 billion backlog at Q2, had booked more than $5 billion of data center orders year to date, and signed 20 gigawatts of new gas contracts in that quarter. The worry is that any slowdown in hyperscaler financing could ripple into its next wave of contracts, not that existing orders are at risk.

The next test comes quickly: GE Vernova reports Q3 results before the open on October 28, with consensus EPS of $3.99. Order intake and commentary on data center customers' timing will show whether Thursday's move priced in a real change in demand or a financing scare.