Meta has struck a cloud computing deal with Google valued at over $10 billion across six years, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Thursday. The agreement, first reported by The Information, will see Meta rely on Google’s data centers for servers, storage, networking, and related services.
While Meta declined to comment, the deal is said to be one of the largest in Google Cloud’s 17-year history.
The move comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ramps up spending on artificial intelligence, luring top talent from rivals like OpenAI and Apple to develop what he calls “AI superintelligence.”
“I’m excited to build personal superintelligence for everyone in the world,” Zuckerberg said during last month’s earnings call.
Meta is competing fiercely with other tech giants, all investing billions in AI, making this partnership a key milestone in the ongoing race.
Google parent Alphabet’s cloud computing business was on pace to bring in $50 billion over the course of the year, the company said in a recent earnings report.
Meta also reported robust second-quarter financial results, and significantly increased its capital expenditures to $17 billion in the quarter, primarily for AI infrastructure investments.
Meta projected total 2025 capital spending between $66 billion and $72 billion.
A strong quarter “won’t shield Meta from questions concerning the company’s future as it breathlessly tries to keep up in the AI race,” Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley said of the quarterly earnings.
In a post outlining Meta’s AI strategy, Zuckerberg has signaled that the remainder of the decade would be a transformative period for artificial intelligence development and that the company’s priority was to bring AI to its users.
