Leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic is reportedly engaged in very preliminary discussions with tech giant Meta to lease substantial computing power for its AI operations. A person familiar with the matter revealed the talks to CNBC's Kate Rooney, signaling a significant potential collaboration in the fiercely competitive AI landscape.
The New York Times first broke news of the potential deal, suggesting it could be valued at an impressive $10 billion. Following this report, shares of Meta climbed off their daily lows on Friday, reflecting investor optimism about the company's strategic moves in AI.
Meta has chosen to remain tight-lipped on the ongoing discussions.
This development follows closely on the heels of Anthropic's recently announced agreement with Elon Musk's SpaceX. Under that deal, Anthropic secured access to the computing capacity at SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center to enhance services for its paid subscribers. These back-to-back deals underscore Anthropic's aggressive strategy to secure the necessary infrastructure for its advanced AI models.
Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.
Prakash Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images
These negotiations are a clear indication of Anthropic's continued commitment to forging major partnerships to gain access to the highly coveted AI chips primarily manufactured by Nvidia. The scarcity of these powerful chips remains a significant hurdle for AI firms like Anthropic, which currently imposes usage limits on its most sophisticated models, such as Fable.
The timing of these talks is particularly noteworthy as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in May that the social media giant was considering venturing into the cloud computing business. This potential pivot aims to demonstrate to investors how Meta can monetize its substantial AI investments beyond merely improving its existing platforms.
Meta's ambitious plans include allocating up to $145 billion towards capital expenditures in 2026, a significant portion of which is earmarked for AI infrastructure. Further solidifying its cloud aspirations, CNBC has confirmed that Dave Brown, a veteran senior executive from Amazon Web Services, is set to join Meta.
Last October, Zuckerberg himself acknowledged the high demand for compute power, noting that companies are frequently "asking if we have compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at." This sentiment underscores the strategic value Meta could bring to the table in the burgeoning AI compute market.
