To The Moon

According to a report, Meta Platforms, Inc. is in preliminary negotiations with Anthropic PBC to lease computing capacity from its data centers to the AI firm. Should the agreement be finalized, the two-year contract could be valued at up to $10 billion.

As noted in previous coverage, Meta Platforms, Inc. has been discussing the establishment of a new cloud computing business, potentially selling its surplus AI computing power directly to external clients. Furthermore, the company is considering selling access to AI models deployed on its own infrastructure, a business model similar to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Bedrock service.

Meta Platforms, Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a prior interview that the company currently uses almost all of its computing capacity for internal projects. However, the high market demand and pricing for such capacity is prompting a reconsideration of leasing a portion externally.

Concurrently, Anthropic has been actively procuring external computing resources. In May of this year, the company announced a deal with SpaceX, committing to pay nearly $45 billion over the next three years to access computing power at several of SpaceX's data centers. In the same month, Anthropic also signed an $1.8 billion compute capacity agreement with cloud services provider Akamai.

Agreement Structure: Flexible Terms Over Two Years

The potential terms of the deal indicate both parties are building in flexibility for uncertainty. With monthly payments and the option for early termination, the $10 billion figure represents a theoretical maximum, with the actual financial commitment likely being significantly lower.

The transaction structure resembles the agreement Anthropic signed with SpaceX in May—a three-year deal valued at $45 billion. The emergence of two such massive potential lease deals in a short timeframe points to the same underlying trend: leading AI model companies are experiencing explosive growth in their demand for computing power procurement.

For Meta Platforms, Inc., the low-barrier terms reduce negotiation friction for securing a first major client. For Anthropic, it functions like an option in the compute market—securing access to resources while retaining the flexibility to adjust its position as needed.

Following the initial report, shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. initially fell nearly 6% intraday before paring losses significantly, ultimately closing down 2.8%.