Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, is pursuing a plan to rent up to $10 billion (about 15 trillion won) worth of data center compute resources from Meta, according to reports on the 19th. If the transaction goes through, Meta will provide to outside corporations the infrastructure it built for its own AI services and enter the cloud computing business.
According to Reuters and other foreign media, Anthropic proposed last month to lease Meta's compute resources for two years, and Meta is reviewing the plan. The contract is discussed at up to $10 billion. The terms include Anthropic paying the rent in monthly installments and allowing both sides to end the contract early.
The talks are in the early stages and may not result in a final contract. The fact that Meta has not run a business selling compute resources externally so far is also a variable in the negotiations. Meta did not respond to related inquiries, and Anthropic declined to comment.
Through this transaction, Meta can diversify its ad-heavy revenue sources and compete with "neocloud" firms such as CoreWeave and Nevious that rent out AI compute resources. As semiconductors and data center capacity needed to train AI models and run services grow scarce, compute resources themselves are emerging as a new revenue source.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive officer, said at the shareholders meeting in May that the company could consider entering the cloud computing business. He said outside corporations are contacting Meta almost weekly to buy its AI models or excess compute resources. Meta's position is that it could sell them if outside rental revenue is larger than when the company allocates compute to its own businesses.
Meta invested about $72.2 billion (about 108.3 trillion won) in capital expenditures (CAPEX) last year. This year's capital expenditures outlook was presented at $125 billion to $145 billion (about 187.5 trillion to 217.5 trillion won). Reflecting higher semiconductor component prices and securing future data center capacity, Meta raised it from the previous outlook of $115 billion to $135 billion (about 172.5 trillion to 202.5 trillion won).
Meta is also bolstering its workforce for the cloud business. It plans to bring in senior executive Dave Brown, who worked about 20 years at Amazon Web Services (AWS), to lead data center build-outs. Brown will report to Meta's head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan.
Anthropic is rapidly securing external compute resources to meet demand for its AI service "Claude." In May, it signed a contract to use the "Colossus 1" AI data center in Memphis, Tennessee, operated by SpaceX. Colossus 1 is equipped with more than 220,000 Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), and Anthropic secured 300 megawatts (MW) of compute capacity through it.
SpaceX's listing documents state that Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion (about 1.875 trillion won) per month through May 2029. If the contract holds as planned, the aggregates come to about $45 billion (about 67.5 trillion won). However, Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, later said the confirmed lease term is six months, after which either side can end the contract with 90 days' notice.
This month, Anthropic also signed a 20-year data center lease with AI infrastructure firm TeraWulf worth $19 billion (about 28.5 trillion won). The data center being built in Kentucky will support about 401 MW of information technology (IT) load, with operations starting in the second half of 2027 and full capacity secured by early 2028.