Meta in talks with Anthropic over up to $10 bln AI compute lease deal: NYT

By Luis Blanco Sat, July 18, 2026 at 8:05 AM PDT | 3 min read

• META: -2.79%
• SPCX: -5.43%

Meta is reportedly in talks to lease computing power to Anthropic in a deal worth as much as $10 billion over two years, according to the New York Times.

The arrangement would open a new business line for Meta while easing Anthropic's desperate hunt for compute.

Inside the Reported Meta and Anthropic Compute Deal

Computing power, or compute, refers to the data center capacity used to train and run artificial intelligence models. The Anthropic proposal, first announced in June, would let the startup rent Meta's excess infrastructure rather than build its own facilities.

According to the NYT, Anthropic would pay Meta in monthly installments over the two-year period, with an early-exit clause available to either party.

The scale still looks modest by industry standards. The proposal runs about a third of the deal Anthropic signed with Elon Musk's SpaceX in May.

Under that agreement, the AI firm pays roughly $1.25 billion monthly, or $45 billion over three years, for computing power. Similar early-exit provisions reportedly applied to that larger contract as well.

The talks remain in early stages and may still collapse before closing. Both Anthropic and Meta declined to comment on the reported negotiations.

The context explains the urgency. Leading AI companies are racing to secure compute, while Meta, Google, and Microsoft pour hundreds of billions into new data centers worldwide.

That construction boom has unsettled Wall Street. Investors increasingly question whether such extraordinary levels of spending can ever be justified by real returns.

"Anthropic needs a lot of compute, and Meta has a lot of compute. Anthropic has really good models. Meta, until very recently, didn't have very good models, and now they have, you know, I would say an A-minus to B-tier frontier model," said Theo Jaffee of MTS.

Why Would Meta Rent Compute to a Direct Rival?

For Meta, a potential deal would carry unusual weight. It could create fresh revenue and ease pressure from shareholders skeptical of the company's aggressive infrastructure budget.

Mark Zuckerberg has said Meta will spend as much as $145 billion this year, most of it on AI. That figure more than doubles the $72 billion spent the previous year.

Doubts about Meta's own models add another layer. The company has admitted it might build more data centers than its AI products currently require.

Selling that surplus offers an obvious fix. Zuckerberg hinted on a May investor call that outside firms regularly ask to buy compute at a premium.

He said Meta had resisted so far because it still expected to use the capacity internally. Overbuilding, however, would make leasing the surplus a far more logical option.

The growing scarcity of compute has pushed direct rivals toward cooperation. Anthropic, valued near $1.2 trillion and preparing to go public, has seen demand surge since launching Claude Code.

Meta itself already rents capacity elsewhere, including a $21 billion CoreWeave deal and a $27 billion agreement with Nebius. Rising compute prices now let the company consider renting its own centers out to others.

Read the original story: Meta Reportedly In Talks With Anthropic Over a $10 Billion AI Deal by Luis Blanco at beincrypto.com