Meta Platforms has entered preliminary discussions to lease computing capacity from its data centres to Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, in a deal that could reach $10 billion over two years, according to a report by The New York Times. Shares of Meta, which had been down nearly 6 percent in New York trading on Friday, trimmed losses to around 2.7 percent after the news emerged, reflecting investor interest in the potential diversification of revenue beyond digital advertising.

Anthropic approached Meta with the proposal in June, and the talks remain at an early stage with no terms finalised. Under the framework discussed, Anthropic would make monthly payments over the contract period, and either party could terminate the agreement early. The negotiations are complicated by the fact that Meta does not yet have a formalised business unit for selling external access to its computing infrastructure, though Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told shareholders in May that the company receives such requests “almost every week” and that entering the cloud computing market was “definitely a possibility.”

The potential Meta agreement follows a pattern of aggressive spending by Anthropic to secure the vast processing power required to train and run advanced AI models. In May, the company signed a deal to pay xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, nearly $45 billion over three years for capacity across multiple data centres, including the Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Anthropic also separately contracted with cloud provider Akamai Technologies for $1.8 billion. Viewed from Silicon Valley, these moves signal that the AI startup, which is preparing for an initial public offering, is prioritising guaranteed access to compute over building its own infrastructure, even as it competes with Meta in AI development.

For Meta, the talks represent a strategic step toward monetising the tens of billions of dollars it is pouring into AI infrastructure. The company has forecast capital expenditures of $125 billion to $145 billion in 2026, largely driven by data centre construction. Leasing excess capacity would position Meta as a competitor to specialised “neocloud” providers such as CoreWeave and Nebius, which have built businesses renting GPU access to AI developers. Industry observers in New York note that the move would also help Meta offset the cost of its own AI ambitions while keeping its infrastructure fully utilised.

Both Meta and Anthropic declined to comment. The discussions may not result in a binding agreement, and the structure of any deal could change. The next factual milestone to watch is whether Meta formally establishes a cloud services division, a step that would signal a concrete shift in strategy and could accelerate similar negotiations with other AI firms.