Meta Negotiates $10 Billion AI Compute Lease With Anthropic

Meta Platforms Inc. is in preliminary discussions to lease AI computing capacity to the startup Anthropic in a potential deal valued at up to $10 billion over two years. Anthropic proposed the arrangement in June, seeking a monthly payment structure with early termination options for both parties. While the New York Times reported the $10 billion figure, CNN cited sources characterizing specific valuations as speculative.

This potential deal coincides with a massive expansion of Meta's hardware infrastructure. The company recently recruited Dave Brown, a former senior vice president from Amazon Web Services, to lead its data center construction and the Meta Compute initiative. As part of this push, Meta is scaling a data center project in Louisiana from 2 to 5 gigawatts, involving an investment exceeding $50 billion. Total capital expenditures for the year are projected between $125 billion and $145 billion.

If finalized, the lease would mark a strategic shift for Meta into the cloud computing market, allowing it to monetize spare capacity and diversify revenue beyond advertising. This move follows previous indications from CEO Mark Zuckerberg that entering the cloud sector was an option if the company overbuilt its infrastructure. Anthropic is pursuing the capacity to support its Claude models and prepare for a potential public listing as early as October.