Meta Platforms is drawing up plans to enter the cloud infrastructure market by selling access to artificial intelligence computing power and models, a move that would place it in direct competition with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, Bloomberg reported.
The Facebook parent has been racing to secure costly data centers, chips and other infrastructure to support its own AI ambitions. Now, it is exploring ways to generate revenue from excess computing capacity by offering it to outside customers, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity because the plans are not public.
(Photo: Skorzewiak / Shutterstock)
One option under discussion would allow developers to access AI models hosted on Meta’s infrastructure, similar to Amazon’s Bedrock service. Under that model, Meta would operate the data centers and chips powering the models, including its Muse Spark models, and charge customers for access.
The company is also considering selling raw computing capacity, a model used by so-called neocloud companies such as CoreWeave. The effort is part of Meta Compute, an internal initiative focused on building and managing the company’s AI infrastructure. The project is led by infrastructure chief Santosh Janardhan, Daniel Gross of Meta Superintelligence Labs and Meta President Dina Powell McCormick, Bloomberg reported.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment, and the plans remain in development.
The potential cloud push comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI “superintelligence” a central priority and committed hundreds of billions of dollars to data centers and chips. Investors have questioned how Meta will earn returns on that spending, and a cloud business could help offset the costs.
Zuckerberg signaled in May that selling excess compute or offering an API-based AI service was “definitely on the table,” saying outside companies regularly ask Meta whether they can buy access to its infrastructure.
Meta shares rose as much as 8.6% in premarket trading Wednesday before paring gains.