Meta is reportedly in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times.
The arrangement would open a new business line for Meta while easing Anthropic's desperate hunt for compute.
Computing power, or compute, refers to the data center capacity used to train and run artificial intelligence models. The Anthropic proposal, first announced in June, would let the startup rent Meta's excess infrastructure rather than build its own facilities.
According to the NTY, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly installments over the two-year period, with an early-exit clause available to either party.
The scale still looks modest by industry standards. The proposal runs about a third of the deal Anthropic signed with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens.
Under that agreement, the AI firm pays roughly $1.25 billion monthly, or $45 billion over three years, for computing power. Similar early-exit provisions reportedly applied to that larger contract as well.
The talks remain in early stages and may still collapse before closing. Both Anthropic and Meta declined to comment on the reported negotiations.
The context explains the urgency. Leading AI companies are racing to secure compute, while Meta, Google, and Microsoft pour hundreds of billions into new data centers worldwide.
That construction boom has unsettled Wall Street. Investors increasingly question whether such extraordinary levels of spending can ever be justified by real returns.
"Anthropic needs a lot of compute, and Meta has a lot of compute. Anthropic has really good models. Meta, until very recently, didn't have very good models, and now they have, you know, I would say an A-minus to B-tier frontier model," MTS's Theo Jaffee said.
For Meta, a potential deal would carry unusual weight. It could create fresh revenue and ease pressure from shareholders skeptical of the company's aggressive infrastructure budget.
Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta will spend as much as $145 billion this year, most of it on AI. That figure more than doubles the $72 billion spent the previous year.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights.
Doubts about Meta's own models add another layer. The company has admitted it might build more data centers than its AI products currently require.
Selling that surplus offers an obvious fix. Zuckerberg hinted on a May investor call that outside firms regularly ask to buy compute at a premium.
Source: Yahoo Finance Top News — This article was automatically imported from the source. Read full article at original source →
