Meta Platforms is in early talks to lease artificial intelligence computing power to Anthropic in a deal that could be worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to a Reuters report citing a source familiar with the matter. The discussions are still preliminary, and there is no guarantee they will produce a signed agreement.
Anthropic proposed the arrangement in June, and Meta is weighing it as part of a broader push to turn its AI infrastructure spending into a revenue line rather than a pure cost centre. Under the terms discussed so far, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly instalments over the two year period, with both sides free to exit early.
Why Meta Wants In
Meta could spend as much as $145 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, most of it aimed at AI infrastructure. Selling excess GPU capacity would let the company start recouping some of that outlay directly, rather than waiting for AI features to lift advertising revenue.
Mark Zuckerberg signalled the shift as early as last October, saying companies were approaching Meta “almost every week” to buy spare compute or model access. At Meta’s shareholder meeting in May, he said entering cloud computing was “definitely on the table.” Bloomberg has since reported that Meta is building an internal cloud unit, and the company has hired Dave Brown, a longtime Amazon Web Services executive, to help run it.
A deal with Anthropic would be Meta’s first major move into that business, and an unusual one. Meta builds and sells its own Llama models, which compete directly with Anthropic’s Claude. Becoming Claude’s landlord, even a temporary one, would put Meta on both sides of the AI race at once.
Anthropic’s Compute Squeeze
For Anthropic, the talks fit a pattern that has defined its year. The company is approaching a $1 trillion valuation, yet it still cannot secure GPU capacity fast enough to meet demand for Claude, and it has had to cap usage on its most advanced models as a result.
In May, Anthropic struck a $1.25 billion per month deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to draw on the Colossus 1 data centre in Memphis, Tennessee. Google has made a similar arrangement with SpaceX, paying roughly $920 million a month, even as it rations its own Gemini model access. CNBC confirmed the early stage Meta talks through a separate source, describing them as very preliminary.
What Happens Next
Meta’s stock fell more than two percent on Friday amid a broader tech selloff, though shares pared some of those losses after news of the talks broke. Meta has declined to comment publicly on the discussions.
Nothing here is finalised. The two sides still have to agree on price, capacity, and the technical details of running Anthropic’s workloads inside Meta’s data centres, and reporting on the negotiations notes that talks have grown more complicated because Meta has not historically operated a leasing business. But the direction of travel is clear. As GPU capacity remains the binding constraint across the industry, competitors are increasingly renting to each other simply to keep pace with demand, and this deal would be the clearest sign yet of that trend inside the Meta-Anthropic relationship specifically.
Prince Anichi
Founder and Lead Technology Editor at Ortechy. Covering digital economy shifts, tech ecosystems across Africa, cybersecurity intelligence, and emerging software platforms.
