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.

Anthropic, Meta reportedly discussing $10B data center leasing deal

Anthropic PBC is reportedly seeking to lease some of Meta Platforms Inc.'s data center capacity. The New York Times today cited three sources as saying that the deal could be worth $10 billion over two years. However, the report noted that the companies' discussions are at an early stage and could fall through. The idea of a data center lease was reportedly floated by Anthropic in June. According to the Times, the company is seeking terms that would give it the option to cancel the contract early. The artificial intelligence developer added a similar clause to its recently signed infrastructure deal with SpaceX Corp. Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month to use the rocket maker's Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 supercomputers. The contract is structured as a 180-day lease, but both companies can end it early with a 90-day notice. Shortly after signing the SpaceX deal, Anthropic raised the rate limits of its application programming interface and Claude Code. A contract with Meta could be followed by a similar increase. However, any rate limit boost would likely be smaller given that lease is worth $416 million per month, or a third of what Anthropic is paying SpaceX. Today's report didn't specify what Meta hardware the AI developer hopes to use. Some of the Facebook parent's servers contain Nvidia Corp. chips while others use the MTIA 400, a custom accelerator that debuted in March. Anthropic is more likely to pick the former option. Its workloads are already compatible with Nvidia chips and adapting AI workloads to Meta's silicon would involve a significant amount of work. Leasing AI chips to other companies could help Meta recoup some of its heavy infrastructure spending. This week, the Facebook parent committed more than $50 billion to a data center campus in Louisiana. The sprawling development spans 3,650 acres and will be supported by 10 power plants. Meta faces heavy competition in the AI infrastructure market. Buyers can choose among the offerings of not only the industry's top cloud providers and SpaceX but also numerous well-funded data center startups. In theory, signing up a high-profile customer such as Anthropic could make it easier for Meta to stand out. The companies' lease discussions are particularly notable because they compete with each other in the large language model market. Last week, Meta debuted an LLM called Muse Spark 1.1 that is optimized for programming tasks. The company plans to sell access to the model through an API that will cost 75% less than Claude.

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, Anthropic in talks for potential $10 billion compute lease deal

Such a deal would help Meta diversify beyond advertising by generating revenue from its infrastructure and competing with neocloud firms such as CoreWeave and Nebius, as growing adoption of advanced AI tools boosts the need for computing capacity. Meta Platforms is in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a potential deal worth up to $10 billion over two years, according to a source familiar with the matter. Shares of the social media giant pared losses slightly after the news and closed down more than 2% amid a wider tech selloff on Friday. They ⁠were ⁠down marginally in extended trading. Such a deal would help Meta diversify beyond advertising by generating revenue from its infrastructure and competing with neocloud firms such as CoreWeave and Nebius, as growing adoption of advanced AI tools boosts the need for computing capacity. The Claude Code creator would pay Meta in monthly increments over the two-year period, although the terms remain subject ⁠to change, the source said, adding that the companies would be able to exit any agreement early. IPO-bound Anthropic had proposed the deal in ⁠June and Meta is considering it, the source said, adding that the talks have become complicated since Meta does not have a business selling its computing power. The discussions are in their early stages and may not result in a deal, according to the source. Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Anthropic declined to comment. The potential agreement echoes a strategy recently pursued by Elon Musk's SpaceX, with whom Anthropic struck a deal in May to tap the full computing power of its Colossus 1 data center ⁠in Memphis, Tennessee. At Meta's shareholder meeting in May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said entering cloud computing was "definitely on the table," noting that firms were approaching Meta "almost every week" to buy access to its AI models or spare computing power. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that Meta was building a cloud business to sell excess computing power and host AI models for developers.

Meta Reportedly Negotiating $10 Billion AI Compute Deal With Anthropic - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Ne

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is reportedly negotiating a deal to rent AI data center capacity to Anthropic worth up to $10 billion over two years. Anthropic pitched the arrangement in June, and both sides could exit early, with terms remaining fluid, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the discussions. Meta and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. Smaller Than Anthropic's SpaceX Pact Anthropic's web traffic share nearly doubled between March and June, separating it from smaller rivals and strengthening its negotiating position as it seeks more compute capacity to meet demand. Trading Metrics Meta has a market capitalization of approximately $1.64 trillion. Its stock has traded between a 52-week high of $796.25 and a 52-week low of $520.26. The tech stock has fallen 0.68% so far this year. Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that META is experiencing long-term consolidation along with medium and short-term upward movement. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Meta, Anthropic drop bombshell news on AI market

Last October, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned almost in passing that companies kept asking Meta if they could buy computing capacity from it, at a premium. It sounded like a hypothetical. On July 17, the New York Times turned it into a very real story. Meta and Anthropic are in early talks for a potential computing deal worth as much as $10 billion over two years, the New York Times reported, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions. Anthropic proposed the arrangement in June. Meta is reviewing it. Both companies declined to comment, and the talks are early enough that they may not result in a deal at all. What the Meta Anthropic $10 billion AI compute deal says The basic structure, as the Times described it, would have Anthropic paying Meta in monthly installments over two years with an option for either party to exit early. CNBC independently confirmed the talks, according to CNBC. CNN also confirmed the conversations but noted its source said any specific dollar figures in the reports are speculative. Meta stock fell as much as 6% on July 17 before paring losses after the report came out, ending the day down about 2%. The potential deal would be smaller than Anthropic's existing arrangement with SpaceX, which signed a $45 billion, three-year compute deal in May giving Anthropic access to the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis. A Meta arrangement would layer on top of that, giving Anthropic yet another major source of GPU capacity. What this says about Meta's cloud computing ambitions For Meta, the Anthropic talks are the clearest sign yet that the company is serious about entering the cloud computing business. Zuckerberg said in May that Meta was considering it as a way to show investors that its AI spending can generate revenue beyond advertising. The internal name for the effort is already circulating: Meta Compute. The infrastructure is already being built. Meta is expected to spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, more than double the $72 billion it spent last year, mostly on AI hardware and data centers. The company cut 8,000 jobs in May while redirecting billions toward AI buildout. It also recently hired Dave Brown, a former senior executive at Amazon Web Services, a move that signals the cloud ambitions go beyond a single leasing deal. "We hear from companies regularly that are asking if we have compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at," Zuckerberg said in October 2025. Anthropic is the first company publicly reported to be in discussions to do exactly that. Why Anthropic keeps signing AI compute infrastructure deals Anthropic's compute appetite has been one of the defining stories of the AI industry in 2026. The company has placed usage limits on its most advanced models, including Claude Fable, because it doesn't have enough processing capacity to run them without restrictions. Revenue has been growing fast but the infrastructure needed to support that growth hasn't kept pace. The SpaceX deal in May was one answer. A potential Meta arrangement would be another. Anthropic is also IPO-bound, according to Reuters, with bankers setting up investor meetings ahead of a possible October listing. Going into a public market roadshow with multiple long-term compute partnerships locked in is a very different story than going in with a single supplier and a capacity constraint. The pattern Anthropic is building looks less like a single vendor relationship and more like a distributed infrastructure network, which reduces dependency on any one partner and gives the company more negotiating leverage with each of them. What the Meta Anthropic deal means for AI investors The most interesting wrinkle in the reported deal is what it would make Meta. The company already builds and releases its own Llama AI models, which compete directly with Anthropic's Claude. A compute lease would make Meta Anthropic's infrastructure provider at the same time it's competing with Anthropic's product. That sounds unusual but it's already the norm in AI infrastructure. SpaceX sells GPU access to both Anthropic and Google. The compute shortage has made competitive boundaries largely irrelevant when it comes to infrastructure. The companies that have capacity can charge a premium for it, and the companies that need capacity will pay, regardless of what the two sides are doing on the model side. For investors watching the broader AI trade, that matters. The infrastructure layer is becoming a business in its own right, separate from who wins the model race. Meta monetizing its data centers while also competing in AI models is roughly what Amazon did with AWS: build infrastructure for yourself, then sell the excess to everyone else, including your competitors. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc. This story was originally published July 18, 2026 at 10:47 AM.

Meta Stock Rises as Anthropic Opens Talks on $10 Billion AI Compute Deal

The companies have not disclosed how much computing power Anthropic could receive. They have also not identified the chips, data center sites, pricing schedule or start date. The lack of a signed contract leaves several questions open. The final value could fall below $10 billion, while either side could withdraw before the service period ends. Anthropic needs large amounts of computing power to train and operate its Demand for AI services has pushed developers to secure chips, electricity, and data center space through several providers. In May, Anthropic reached a separate agreement to use the full computing power of SpaceX's Colossus 1 facility in Memphis. The site contains more than 220,000 Nvidia processors and provides 300 megawatts of capacity. Later reports placed that arrangement at about $1.25 billion each month through May 2029. The contract also allows early termination, giving both parties flexibility if demand or infrastructure plans change. Anthropic also has computing arrangements with major cloud providers. Its talks with Meta show that the company is adding more sources as usage grows across its consumer and business products. The proposal would also diversify beyond its existing cloud partners. For Meta, a completed agreement would add revenue tied directly to its AI infrastructure. The company is also building a broader cloud operation to sell spare capacity and access to selected AI models. No agreement has been announced. Meta and Anthropic have not provided a timeline for completing or ending the talks.

Meta in talks to rent some of its billions in AI infrastructure to Anthropic

New York -- Meta is in talks with Anthropic about leasing computing capacity to the AI startup. It's a move that could put the social media giant in competition with Amazon, Microsoft and Google in a new line of business: cloud computing. The conversation about a potential deal is still early, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN. The talks were first reported by the New York Times, which pegged the deal's worth at as much as US$10 billion over two years, citing three people with knowledge of the discussions. CNN's source said any specific numbers that have been reported are speculative. Meta and Anthropic declined to comment on the talks. Becoming a computing provider could mark a major new revenue opportunity for Meta as it's been investing heavily in data centre infrastructure to support its AI ambitions. The social media giant plans to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion in capital expenditures this year, largely to support that infrastructure buildout, Meta said in its most recent earnings report. That could double what it spent the prior year. Meta said in April that it would lay off 10 per cent of its workforce, about 8,000 people, in part to offset the cost of those investments. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has mentioned the possibility of leasing out some of that infrastructure if his own company's computing needs didn't keep pace with the buildout. "Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from outside asking us ... if we have compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at," Zuckerberg said at Meta's annual shareholder meeting in May. "We haven't done that yet because we think that 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." There's no shortage of demand for computing power as companies large and small race to adopt AI and major AI labs work to improve their models. Anthropic already has multibillion dollar compute licensing deals with Google, SpaceX, Microsoft and Amazon. Meanwhile, investors want Meta to show how its investments will benefit its bottom line, especially as it scrambles to keep pace with AI offerings from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Meta shares are down more than eight per cent from this time last year. Meta last month released an upgraded version of its Muse Spark AI model that it said could rival the coding capabilities of models from OpenAI, Anthropic and others. For the first time, Meta said it would offer a paid version of the service, yet another sign it's looking for bigger returns on AI.

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.