Meta and Anthropic in talks for $10 billion computing power deal as AI demand surges

Meta and Anthropic in talks for up to $10bn data centre deal

Meta is in early talks to rent its computing power to Anthropic in what could be a multibillion-dollar deal, as the social media company plans a new cloud-computing business. Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, proposed the deal in June, according to people familiar with the matter, as it seeks new providers of computing power to keep pace with demand and serve its models to clients. The deal with Meta could be worth as much as $10bn over two years and would be paid in monthly increments over that period, one of the people said. The talks are in early stages and a deal is not guaranteed, several people said. Despite spending tens of billions of dollars on chips, data centres and power, even the largest tech companies are battling to secure enough computing power to support surging demand for their frontier models and AI services. A deal with Meta would follow a similar data centre agreement between the AI lab and SpaceX, worth $1.25bn a month to Elon Musk's rocket conglomerate. Anthropic has raised tens of billions this year to fund infrastructure and has struck major contracts with Amazon and Google's cloud businesses. "The SpaceX model I think is quite interesting in terms of just making these short-term deals that are at a big premium," Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a Bloomberg interview last week. "So we get offers for all kinds of stuff like this and we'll evaluate them and see what makes sense." Meta has joined cloud computing giants Amazon, Microsoft and Google in pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into its fleet of data centres, even though the social media group has only built facilities for its own use. The prospective deal with Anthropic comes as Zuckerberg's group is planning to launch its own cloud-computing business in order to generate revenue from any excess computing capacity, said people familiar with the matter. Such a move would require Meta to shoulder high upfront costs and develop sales relationships with big companies in order to compete with well-established rivals. As one option, Meta is discussing potentially renting out access to raw computing capacity, one of the people said. It is also considering selling its AI models, such as Muse Spark, while hosting them in its data centres, the person added. "The offers that you get for using the compute are so high that it may make sense, in some cases, to rent out or consider those kind of deals instead of your own internal uses," Zuckerberg told Bloomberg. He added this did not mean Meta had overbuilt or had excess computing power available. The company is planning to spend as much as $145bn this year on capital expenditures, particularly on building out its AI infrastructure. It is also racing to develop its Muse Spark models to compete with Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. It is unclear if it can catch up with the frontier labs and grow significant consumer or business demand for those models. The FT in June reported the discussions around a cloud computing business were taking place among the new 'Meta Compute' team, which includes Meta president and former banker Dina Powell McCormick, longtime head of global infrastructure Santosh Janardhan and entrepreneur Daniel Gross. The New York Times first reported the Anthropic deal. Meta and Anthropic declined to comment.

Meta is reportedly considering a multibillion-dollar data center deal with Anthropic - Engadget

It would open up a completely new business for the Facebook and Instagram maker. Meta is "in talks" with Anthropic to lease some of its data centers, according to a new report in The New York Times. The discussions are still in early stages, the report says, but could end in a deal worth up to $10 billion over two years. The report follows earlier reporting from Bloomberg that the social media company was eyeing an entry into the cloud services business. Providing compute resources to other companies would be an entirely new business for Meta, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously hinted at the possibility of selling its data center space. During an earnings call last year, he said that the company fields such requests "almost every week" and that he considered it "an option" for the future. While Meta and Anthropic are ostensibly rivals on the AI front, such an arrangement could benefit both companies. Meta has been making massive investments in AI data centers to fuel its own ambitions to build leading AI models. That level of expenditure has also raised some eyebrows as Meta has said it expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion in 2026 alone. But leasing its data centers to a company like Anthropic, which has a seemingly endless need for compute resources, would turn some of those data center investments into a new, multibillion-dollar business. Anthropic previously inked a similar deal with SpaceXAI ahead of the Elon Musk-led company's initial public offering earlier this summer. That deal is reportedly worth $45 billion over three years. The Claude Code maker immediately raised subscribers' rate limits after announcing the arrangement.

Anthropic in early talks with Meta to acquire compute power

Anthropic is in very preliminary talks to lease computing power from Meta, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC's Kate Rooney. Shares of the social media giant climbed off their lows of the day Friday following a report from New York Times that a potential deal was being discussed worth about $10 billion. The talks come weeks after Anthropic announced a similar deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX to use the computing capacity at its Colossus 1 data center to improve capacity for paid subscribers. They are a sign that Anthropic, one of the leading artificial intelligence labs, continues to make big commitments with other AI labs to use their access to AI chips made by Nvidia.

Meta in Talks to Lease Computing Power to Anthropic in Potential $10 Billion Deal

Meta is in talks to rent computing power from its artificial intelligence data centers to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, three people with knowledge of the discussions said, a potential step toward a new A.I. business for the social networking company. Anthropic proposed the deal in June and Meta is considering it, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss confidential conversations. While the specifics were in flux, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly increments over the two-year period, the people said. The companies would be able to opt out of any agreement early, they added. Anthropic's proposal to Meta was about a third of the size of a deal that the A.I. start-up signed with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May. Under that agreement, Anthropic is paying the rocket company $45 billion over three years -- or $1.25 billion a month -- for computing power. The deal included similar provisions that let either company exit the agreement early. Meta's talks with Anthropic are in their early stages and may not result in a deal, the people with knowledge of the discussions said. Anthropic and Meta declined to comment. The talks underline how eager leading A.I. companies are to get their hands on more computing power to rapidly develop the technology, as tech giants including Meta, Google, Microsoft and others shovel hundreds of billions of dollars into building dozens of new data centers all over the world. The construction boom, which has raised spending by tech companies to an extraordinary degree, has stirred concerns on Wall Street about whether such sums can be justified. For Meta, a deal would be especially significant. It could open a new line of business for the company and potentially alleviate pressure from investors, who have questioned how much Meta has been spending on data centers to develop cutting-edge A.I. models. Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, has said his company will spend as much as $145 billion this year, much of it on A.I., which would be more than double the $72 billion it spent last year. But Meta has faced questions about whether its own A.I. models can compete with those developed by rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI. And the company has acknowledged that it may build more data centers than it needs, relative to the number of customers using its A.I. products. Selling excess computing power to companies like Anthropic could provide Meta with a new revenue stream until demand for its own A.I. services catches up. On recent calls with investors, Mr. Zuckerberg has hinted that selling computing power could be one way for Meta to see some return on its A.I. investments. "Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from the outside asking us" about computing power "that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at," Mr. Zuckerberg said on an investor call in May. "We haven't done that yet because we think we have a use for the compute." "But obviously if we get to a point where we feel that we have overbuilt, then that is an option that we have, and that is partially what gives us confidence in investing in building this out," he said. A.I. companies have grown more comfortable striking deals with rivals out of necessity because of how scarce computing power has become. Anthropic, which is valued at nearly $1 trillion in the private market and has filed to go public, has seen a surge in demand since the release of its enterprise software product, Claude Code. As a result, it has needed to work with companies that own large amounts of processing power to serve its growing customer base. Since Meta does not have a business selling its computing power, that has complicated its talks with Anthropic, one of the people with knowledge of the discussions said. Meta has also struck its own deals to rent computing power from other data center providers, even as it builds it own facilities. That includes a $21 billion deal with CoreWeave, a provider of A.I. computing power, in April and a $27 billion deal with Nebius, another such company, in March. Since those deals were signed, the price of computing power has skyrocketed because of limited supply and increased demand, said Mandeep Singh, a technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. That has presented Meta with an opportunity to rent out its data centers while still investing in its own A.I. in the long term, he added.

Anthropic is in early talks to lease $10 billion in compute from Meta

Anthropic is in early talks for a ~$10B compute deal with Meta, the NYT reported. Meta spent $145B on AI infra and is building a cloud business to monetise it. Anthropic is in very preliminary talks to lease computing power from Meta in a deal worth about $10 billion, the New York Times reported on Friday. CNBC confirmed the early-stage discussions. The talks come weeks after Anthropic announced a $1.25 billion-per-month arrangement with SpaceX to use the Colossus 1 data centre's Nvidia GPUs. The deal would be another sign that Anthropic, despite approaching a $1 trillion valuation, cannot build compute capacity fast enough to meet demand for Claude. Access to AI chips remains a bottleneck, and the company places usage limits on its most advanced models. Google is also renting GPUs from SpaceX for $920 million per month, and Google itself is rationing Gemini access to Meta because it cannot serve demand. For Meta, a deal with Anthropic would mark the beginning of the cloud computing business CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been signalling. In May, Zuckerberg said Meta was considering entering cloud, and last October he noted companies "regularly ask if we have compute they could buy from us at some premium." Meta could spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditure in 2026. A former senior AWS executive, Dave Brown, is set to join Meta. Meta cut 8,000 jobs in May while redirecting billions toward AI infrastructure, and selling excess compute to Anthropic would help justify that spending to investors. The arrangement would create an unusual dynamic: Meta, which builds its own Llama models and competes with Claude, would simultaneously be Anthropic's infrastructure provider. But the compute shortage has made such arrangements routine. SpaceX sells GPUs to both Anthropic and Google. Google sells Gemini to Meta while rationing its access. The AI industry's competitive lines are blurring because everyone needs more compute than they can build alone.

Anthropic in talks to lease Meta computing power in $10 billion deal

Anthropic is in talks to lease computing power from Meta $META in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times. Meta stock climbed off its lows on Friday after the report. According to the New York Times, which cited three people familiar with the confidential discussions, Anthropic initiated the proposal in June and Meta is currently evaluating it. If an agreement is reached, Anthropic would send Meta regular monthly payments across the two-year span, and either party could walk away from the arrangement before it concludes. The negotiations are still nascent and there is no guarantee they will lead to a signed agreement. Both companies declined to comment. A person familiar with the matter also confirmed to CNBC that very preliminary talks are underway. For Meta, the arrangement would represent a step toward a new line of business. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in May that the company was considering entering the cloud computing business as a way to demonstrate to investors that its AI spending can generate revenue beyond improvements to its existing operations. Meta could spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, much of it on AI infrastructure -- more than double the $72 billion it spent last year. Zuckerberg said last October that companies had approached Meta asking to purchase computing capacity at a premium to what Meta paid for it, according to CNBC. The prospective deal would be smaller than a comparable agreement Anthropic reached with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May. The contract calls for Anthropic to pay SpaceX $45 billion across three years, or approximately $1.25 billion each month, for computing resources at SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center. Like the Meta talks, that contract gave both sides the right to terminate before its conclusion. Securing sufficient Nvidia $NVDA chips continues to be a bottleneck for AI developers such as Anthropic, which has had to cap how much users can interact with its top-tier models. The talks with Meta are the latest sign that Anthropic is pursuing arrangements with other technology companies to expand its computing capacity.

Meta could lease computing power to Anthropic in potential $10B deal

SAN FRANCISCO -- Meta is in talks to rent computing power from its artificial intelligence data centers to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, three people with knowledge of the discussions said, a potential step toward a new AI business for the social networking company. Anthropic proposed the deal in June and Meta is considering it, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss confidential conversations. While the specifics were in flux, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly increments over the two-year period, the people said. The companies would be able to opt out of any agreement early, they added. Anthropic's proposal to Meta was about a third of the size of a deal that the AI startup signed with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May. Under that agreement, Anthropic is paying the rocket company $45 billion over three years -- or $1.25 billion a month -- for computing power. The deal included similar provisions that let either company exit the agreement early. Meta's talks with Anthropic are in their early stages and may not result in a deal, the people with knowledge of the discussions said. Anthropic and Meta declined to comment. The talks underline how eager leading AI companies are to get their hands on more computing power to rapidly develop the technology, as tech giants including Meta, Google, Microsoft and others shovel hundreds of billions of dollars into building dozens of new data centers all over the world. The construction boom, which has raised spending by tech companies to an extraordinary degree, has stirred concerns on Wall Street about whether such sums can be justified. For Meta, a deal would be especially significant. It could open a new line of business for the company and potentially alleviate pressure from investors, who have questioned how much Meta has been spending on data centers to develop cutting-edge AI models. Mark Zuckerberg, its CEO, has said his company will spend as much as $145 billion this year, much of it on AI, which would be more than double the $72 billion it spent last year. But Meta has faced questions about whether its own AI models can compete with those developed by rivals like Anthropic and OpenAI. And the company has acknowledged that it may build more data centers than it needs, relative to the number of customers using its AI products. Selling excess computing power to companies like Anthropic could provide Meta with a new revenue stream until demand for its own AI services catches up. On recent calls with investors, Zuckerberg has hinted that selling computing power could be one way for Meta to see some return on its AI investments. "Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from the outside asking us" about computing power "that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at," Zuckerberg said on an investor call in May. "We haven't done that yet because we think we have a use for the compute." "But obviously if we get to a point where we feel that we have overbuilt, then that is an option that we have, and that is partially what gives us confidence in investing in building this out," he said. AI companies have grown more comfortable striking deals with rivals out of necessity because of how scarce computing power has become. Anthropic, which is valued at nearly $1 trillion in the private market and has filed to go public, has seen a surge in demand since the release of its enterprise software product, Claude Code. As a result, it has needed to work with companies that own large amounts of processing power to serve its growing customer base. Since Meta does not have a business selling its computing power, that has complicated its talks with Anthropic, one of the people with knowledge of the discussions said. Meta has also struck its own deals to rent computing power from other data center providers, even as it builds it own facilities. That includes a $21 billion deal with CoreWeave, a provider of AI computing power, in April and a $27 billion deal with Nebius, another such company, in March. Since those deals were signed, the price of computing power has skyrocketed because of limited supply and increased demand, said Mandeep Singh, a technology analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. That has presented Meta with an opportunity to rent out its data centers while still investing in its own AI in the long term, he added.

Meta stock pares losses on report of AI computing deal talks By Investing.com

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) recovered from a steep 5.7% dip, paring losses to 3% after a New York Times report revealed the tech giant is in early-stage talks to lease its vast AI data centers to Anthropic in a blockbuster $10 billion deal. According to the report, Anthropic proposed the deal in June, which would involve the AI startup paying Meta in monthly increments over a two-year period for access to its AI data centers. Both companies would have the option to exit the agreement early. The potential arrangement would represent a new business line for Meta, which has invested heavily in AI infrastructure. The deal's structure mirrors a larger agreement Anthropic signed with SpaceX in May, under which the AI company is paying $45 billion over three years for computing power. The report highlighted the scarcity of computing resources for AI development, a constraint that has become increasingly acute as companies race to build and deploy advanced AI models. Meta has been expanding its AI capabilities and infrastructure as part of its broader technology strategy. The potential deal would allow the company to monetize excess computing capacity while Anthropic gains access to the specialized hardware needed for AI model training and deployment.