Meta is in early talks to lease computing power from its data centers to the AI company Anthropic, in a deal that could be worth roughly $10 billion, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The New York Times reports the arrangement would span about two years. CNBC characterizes the negotiations as being in an early stage, with Anthropic looking to acquire compute power. The figure has been echoed across coverage, including citybiz and Crypto Briefing, which cite a potential value reaching $10 billion.
The deal would be a notable shift for Meta. As Engadget notes, renting out data center capacity would open up a completely new business for the company behind Facebook and Instagram, which has spent heavily building out infrastructure primarily for its own use.
It would also put Meta in an unusual position: supplying computing muscle to Anthropic, a company whose AI models compete in the same market Meta is racing to lead.
According to The New York Times, a deal would underline just how scarce computing power has become for artificial intelligence development. Training and running advanced AI models requires enormous amounts of specialized hardware, and demand has outstripped supply industry-wide. That scarcity is pushing companies toward arrangements that would have seemed unlikely not long ago, including buying capacity from rivals.
None of the reporting indicates the deal is final; the talks are described as ongoing and preliminary.
Why it matters: If completed, the deal shows that access to raw computing power has become so valuable that even direct competitors are willing to do business with one another to get it.