Anthropic is in talks to lease computing power from Meta $META in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times. Meta stock climbed off its lows on Friday after the report.
The AI startup proposed the deal in June; the talks are at an early stage and may not result in an agreement
NurPhoto / Getty Images
Anthropic is in talks to lease computing power from Meta $META in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times. Meta stock climbed off its lows on Friday after the report.
According to the New York Times, which cited three people familiar with the confidential discussions, Anthropic initiated the proposal in June and Meta is currently evaluating it. If an agreement is reached, Anthropic would send Meta regular monthly payments across the two-year span, and either party could walk away from the arrangement before it concludes. The negotiations are still nascent and there is no guarantee they will lead to a signed agreement. Both companies declined to comment.
A person familiar with the matter also confirmed to CNBC that very preliminary talks are underway.
For Meta, the arrangement would represent a step toward a new line of business. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in May that the company was considering entering the cloud computing business as a way to demonstrate to investors that its AI spending can generate revenue beyond improvements to its existing operations. Meta could spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, much of it on AI infrastructure — more than double the $72 billion it spent last year. Zuckerberg said last October that companies had approached Meta asking to purchase computing capacity at a premium to what Meta paid for it, according to CNBC.
The prospective deal would be smaller than a comparable agreement Anthropic reached with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May. The contract calls for Anthropic to pay SpaceX $45 billion across three years, or approximately $1.25 billion each month, for computing resources at SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center. Like the Meta talks, that contract gave both sides the right to terminate before its conclusion.
Securing sufficient Nvidia $NVDA chips continues to be a bottleneck for AI developers such as Anthropic, which has had to cap how much users can interact with its top-tier models. The talks with Meta are the latest sign that Anthropic is pursuing arrangements with other technology companies to expand its computing capacity.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.