Meta Negotiates $10 Billion AI Compute Lease With Anthropic

Meta Platforms is in preliminary discussions to lease AI computing capacity to the startup Anthropic in a deal potentially valued at up to $10 billion over two years. Anthropic proposed the arrangement in June, seeking access to infrastructure via monthly payments with early exit options for both parties. The deal would allow Anthropic to support its Claude models as it prepares for a possible public listing in October.

Meta Platforms Inc. is using the proposal to explore a strategic shift into the cloud computing market, diversifying revenue beyond advertising and recouping costs from aggressive AI spending. The company expects capital expenditures to reach up to $145 billion this year. To support this expansion, Meta recently hired Dave Brown, a former senior vice president from Amazon Web Services, to oversee data center construction and the Meta Compute initiative. This follows a $50 billion investment to scale a Louisiana data center from 2 to 5 gigawatts.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously indicated that offering cloud services was an option if the company overbuilt its capacity, noting that external firms frequently request to buy computing power at a premium. While the New York Times reported the $10 billion valuation, a source cited by CNN described specific figures as speculative. Anthropic has also secured compute capacity through agreements with SpaceX, utilizing the Colossus 1 data center.