According to a report from The New York Times, Meta is in advanced discussions with Anthropic to lease some of its data centers. The deal, still in early stages, could be worth up to $10 billion over two years, marking Meta's entry into the cloud computing business.
A new revenue stream for the social media giant
Meta, traditionally reliant on advertising for the bulk of its revenue, is exploring the opportunity to offer computing resources to other companies. CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted at this possibility during an earnings call, stating that the company receives such requests almost every week and considers it an option for the future. The deal with Anthropic would be a concrete step in that direction.
Synergy between AI rivals
Although Meta and Anthropic are competitors in the AI space, this arrangement could benefit both. Meta has invested heavily in AI infrastructure, with planned spending between $125 billion and $145 billion in 2026 alone. Leasing capacity to a company like Anthropic, which has an almost insatiable need for compute power, would turn those investments into a new multibillion-dollar revenue source. Anthropic previously signed a similar deal with SpaceXAI before its IPO this summer, a $45 billion three-year agreement that allowed it to immediately raise subscriber rate limits.
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Impact on the cloud and AI market
If the deal goes through, Meta would compete directly with cloud giants like AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, but with a focus on AI workloads. For Italian SMEs, this could mean more specialized cloud services, as highlighted by the ongoing debate on European AI rules. Companies using advanced language models may benefit from lower costs and greater resource availability. Meanwhile, tools such as AI captions for social media continue to streamline content creation.
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Future outlook and market reactions
The deal could be announced in the coming months, but antitrust approval remains a question, given the involvement of two major AI players. Analysts view Meta's move as a strategic diversification away from advertising revenue, in a turbulent tech sector. Meta's stock saw a slight uptick after the news, signaling investor confidence. For a broader context, read the article on China's AI leap and what Italian SMEs must do.
For more details, refer to the original source on Engadget.
