Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is in early-stage talks with AI startup Anthropic about leasing computing capacity, a move that would thrust the social media giant into direct competition with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.
The potential deal was first reported by the New York Times, which cited three people with knowledge of the discussions and valued the arrangement at as much as $10 billion over two years.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the talks to CNN, though the source cautioned that any specific financial figures that have been reported are speculative.
Both Meta and Anthropic declined to comment on the discussions, leaving the full scope and terms of any potential agreement unclear.
The talks come as Meta has been pouring enormous sums into data center infrastructure to support its growing artificial intelligence ambitions across its platforms.
Meta said in its most recent earnings report that it plans to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion in capital expenditures this year, a figure that could double what the company spent the prior year.
To help offset the cost of that infrastructure buildout, Meta said in April that it would lay off 10% of its workforce, affecting approximately 8,000 employees.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the possibility of renting out surplus computing capacity, noting that outside companies approach Meta regularly seeking access to its infrastructure.
“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, adding that the company would consider leasing capacity if it determined it had overbuilt.
Anthropic is no stranger to large-scale compute agreements, already holding multibillion dollar licensing deals with Google, SpaceX, Microsoft, and Amazon, reflecting intense industrywide demand for AI processing power.
Investors have been pressing Meta to demonstrate how its massive AI spending will translate into tangible returns, particularly as the company competes with frontier AI developers like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Meta shares are down more than 8% from this time last year, adding urgency to the company’s push to find new revenue streams tied to its infrastructure investments.
Last month, Meta released an upgraded version of its Muse Spark AI model, which it claimed could rival the coding capabilities of models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others, and for the first time introduced a paid version of the service.
