Meta is in preliminary talks with Anthropic PBC to lease computing power to the latter, with monthly payments and an option to exit early. If the deal is finalized, the two-year contract could be worth up to $10 billion. Boosted by this news, Meta's share price initially fell nearly 6% during trading before quickly narrowing its losses, ultimately closing down 2.8%.
According to The New York Times, Meta is in preliminary negotiations with Anthropic PBC to lease computing capacity from its data centers. If completed, the two-year agreement could be valued at up to $10 billion.
As previously reported by Wall Street News, Meta is exploring the development of a new cloud computing business that could directly sell its excess AI computing capacity to external clients. Additionally, the company is considering offering access to AI models deployed on its own infrastructure—a business model similar to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Bedrock service.
Meta CEO Zuckerberg stated in a prior interview that the company currently allocates nearly all of its computing capacity to internal projects, but strong market demand—and high prices—for computing power are prompting him to reconsider leasing out a portion of it externally.
Meanwhile, Anthropic has been actively procuring external computing resources. In May this year, the company announced an agreement with SpaceX under which it would pay nearly $45 billion over the next three years for access to computing capacity across multiple data centers. In the same month, Anthropic also signed a $1.8 billion computing capacity partnership agreement with cloud services provider Akamai.
Boosted by this news, Meta's share price initially fell nearly 6% during trading before quickly narrowing its losses, ultimately closing down 2.8%.
Deal structure: two-year term, monthly payments, early termination allowed—more akin to an option than a lease
The terms of this potential transaction indicate that both parties are hedging against uncertainty. The flexible arrangement—monthly payments with an early exit option—means the $10 billion figure represents only a theoretical maximum; the actual binding commitment is far lower than the headline number suggests.
The deal structure resembles the agreement Anthropic signed with SpaceX in May this year—a three-year pact totaling $45 billion. The emergence of these two massive leasing negotiations in quick succession points to a common underlying trend: leading AI model companies are experiencing explosive growth in their demand for computing capacity.
For Meta, the low-barrier terms reduce negotiation friction for securing its first major external client. For Anthropic, this arrangement effectively locks in an option in the computing market—securing access to resources while retaining the flexibility to adjust its position at any time.