The market for artificial intelligence computing power continues to be in turmoil. At the center of another high-profile initiative is Anthropic, which has proposed that Meta rent its server resources for up to $10 billion. This is not just a number—it is a signal of how acute the GPU shortage problem is and how far AI startups are willing to go to gain access to hardware.
According to my information, the potential agreement is set for two years. Anthropic sent the proposal back in June, and Meta is currently actively reviewing it. The format involves monthly payments, with both parties able to exit the deal early. However, the final terms have not yet been agreed upon. The key sticking point is that Meta simply does not have a ready-made business for selling computing power. It is not a cloud provider in the classic sense, but a corporation that builds infrastructure primarily for itself.
For Meta, this step opens up a strategically important new source of revenue, independent of advertising. The company could compete with giants like CoreWeave and Nebius, from which it currently rents capacity itself. Recall that in April, Meta signed a $21 billion agreement with CoreWeave, and in March, a $27 billion deal with Nebius. Selling excess capacity would allow Meta not only to justify its massive capital expenditures (which could reach $145 billion in 2026—more than double last year's $72 billion) but also to ease pressure from investors criticizing the scale of AI spending.
Mark Zuckerberg himself hinted back in May that external firms regularly express interest in purchasing equipment, but Meta had refrained due to its own needs. Now the situation is changing. The company is already strengthening its cloud team—former Amazon Web Services top executive Dave Brown has joined.
Demand for capacity at Anthropic has surged amid the popularity of Claude Code. Earlier, the startup entered into a similar deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX for $45 billion over three years ($1.25 billion per month), utilizing the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis. It is clear that even competitors are forced to negotiate with each other—such is the magnitude of the resource shortage.
My analysis: This deal is a vivid confirmation that the AI infrastructure market is turning into a battlefield not only of technologies but also of capital. Meta, with its vast reserves of capacity, can turn them into a financial asset, while Anthropic gains access to a critically important resource. If the agreement goes through, we will see a precedent that changes the rules of the game for the entire sector.