Meta Platforms Inc. is in preliminary discussions to lease artificial intelligence (AI) computing power to rival Anthropic, according to reports.
The prospective two-year deal, initially reported by The New York Times and later by CNBC, could be valued at up to $10 billion and would mark a significant pivot for the social media giant into the cloud infrastructure market.
News of the negotiations, which reportedly began in June after an initial proposal from Anthropic, lifted Meta’s stock off its intraday lows on Friday. Under the tentative framework, Anthropic would make regular monthly payments over a 24-month span, though sources emphasize that the talks remain nascent and either party retains the right to opt out before a formal contract is finalized.
Representatives for both Meta and Anthropic declined to comment.
For Meta, the arrangement offers a direct path to monetize its colossal hardware investments. CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted at such a strategy last May, signaling that the company was exploring the cloud computing business to reassure investors that its soaring infrastructure spending can generate direct revenue. Meta’s capital expenditures are projected to reach as high as $145 billion in 2026 — more than double its 2025 spend — driven heavily by AI data center expansions. Zuckerberg previously noted that outside firms have frequently offered to buy Meta’s computing capacity at a premium. In a further sign of its cloud ambitions, Meta recently tapped former Amazon Web Services executive Dave Brown to spearhead its infrastructure division.
The potential agreement underscores the desperate scramble for hardware across the AI sector. A persistent shortage of specialized NVIDIA Corp. chips has forced frontier labs like Anthropic to place strict usage limits on advanced models like Claude Fable 5.
To circumvent these bottlenecks, Anthropic has aggressively pursued alternative infrastructure partnerships. In May, the lab secured a massive three-year, $45 billion deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to utilize its Colossus 1 data center, alongside similar capacity-renting maneuvers across the industry, including a recent cloud deal between Google and SpaceX.
While Meta continues to develop its own open-source AI models, leasing its surplus data center capacity allows the company to establish a lucrative new revenue stream while it chases industry leaders in raw model capabilities.
If finalized, the deal would solidify a growing tech-industry trend: traditional tech rivals transforming into essential infrastructure partners in the race for AI supremacy.