Meta in talks for $10bn Anthropic compute lease
Meta Platforms is negotiating a potential $10 billion deal to lease computing power to Anthropic, signaling a strategic push to monetize its AI infrastructure and compete with cloud upstarts.
Meta Platforms is in early discussions to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could reach $10 billion over two years. Anthropic, which is preparing for an initial public offering, proposed the arrangement in June.
Under the current framework, the Claude Code creator would make monthly payments to Meta. However, the terms remain fluid, and both companies would retain the ability to exit the agreement early. Anthropic declined to comment, while Meta did not respond to requests for comment.
A successful agreement would mark a notable pivot for the social media giant. Offloading spare capacity to Anthropic would allow Meta to generate direct revenue from its massive hardware investments. This would diversify its business beyond its core advertising operations.
The move would also pit Meta against a new class of specialized "neocloud" providers. Firms like CoreWeave and Nebius have built lucrative businesses by leasing dedicated AI computing capacity. They have captured demand that traditional cloud giants have struggled to fully meet.
However, executing this strategy presents internal hurdles. The current negotiations are complicated by the fact that Meta does not yet have an established business for selling its computing power. The discussions could still collapse without resulting in a final contract.
The potential Anthropic deal follows a recent pattern of external infrastructure reliance from the AI startup. In May, Anthropic struck an agreement to tap the complete computing capacity of SpaceX’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
For Meta, exploring a lease with Anthropic aligns with explicit signals from its top executive. At a May shareholder meeting, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said entering the cloud computing market was "definitely on the table."
Zuckerberg noted that outside firms were approaching Meta "almost every week" seeking to purchase access to its AI models or surplus computing power. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Meta was actively building a cloud business to sell excess capacity and host external AI models.
