A $10 Billion Cloud Deal Signals a New Era for Meta and Google

In a significant move reshaping the tech landscape, Meta Platforms has entered a six-year cloud computing agreement with Google, valued at more than $10 billion. This strategic partnership, first reported by The Information, will see Meta utilizing Google Cloud's extensive infrastructure, including servers, storage, and networking, to support its ambitious artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. The agreement comes as Meta seeks to leverage external partners to meet the immense computational demands of AI development and help fund its massive infrastructure buildout, which includes offloading $2 billion in data center assets.

This deal is a major win for Google, as it continues to compete with larger rivals like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. It follows a similar, surprising collaboration with OpenAI, and contributed to Google Cloud's strong financial performance. In July, Google's cloud-computing unit reported an almost 32% jump in second-quarter revenue, reaching $13.6 billion, a significant increase that surpassed expectations. The partnership between these two longtime rivals in online advertising underscores the central role that cloud infrastructure plays in the AI race, providing Meta with the critical computing power needed to advance its Llama series of AI models and remain competitive in the rapidly evolving landscape.