Meta Strikes $10bn Google Cloud Deal to Boost AI Ambitions

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has entered into a $10 billion cloud computing agreement with Alphabet Inc.’s Google as part of its aggressive investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

According to people familiar with the matter, the agreement requires Meta to pay at least $10 billion over six years to use Google Cloud’s servers and storage.

The deal is aimed at accelerating Meta’s computing capacity as it competes to deliver advanced AI tools to its global user base.

The accord marks the first major cloud partnership between Meta and Google. Until now, Meta has largely relied on its own data centers while Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure have dominated the cloud market.

The move underscores Meta’s urgency to expand AI infrastructure as Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg pledges to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI and supporting infrastructure.

Meta currently operates more than two dozen data centers, with new facilities under construction, including a 4 million-square-foot complex in Louisiana.

However, many of these centers will not be operational for years, prompting the company to secure additional capacity through Google Cloud.

Google Cloud, which trails AWS and Azure in global market share, has previously collaborated with Meta on limited initiatives, including making Meta’s Llama AI model available through its Vertex AI platform.

The new agreement positions Google Cloud as a formal infrastructure provider to Meta, strengthening its profile in the competitive cloud market.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh and Robert Biggar said the deal validates Google Cloud’s pricing strategy and could influence hyperscaler competition.

They added that Meta is expected to focus on improving the reasoning capabilities of its Llama model, given increasing traction from rival frontier AI models in areas such as search, coding agents, and real-time translation.

The $10 billion deal reinforces Meta’s ambition to accumulate the largest computing power per AI researcher in the industry.

By leveraging Google Cloud’s infrastructure, Meta aims to shorten deployment timelines for its AI tools while maintaining long-term investments in its own data centers.

Both companies declined to comment on the specifics of the agreement, but industry observers view the pact as a significant milestone in the evolving cloud and AI competition among global technology leaders.