source: techcrunch ai: meta, like spacex, looks to turn excess ai compute into cash
level: business
meta is preparing to launch a cloud infrastructure business, selling access to its ai compute power and models, according to a bloomberg report. the move would put meta in competition with amazon web services, google cloud, and microsoft azure. this comes weeks after spacex, through xai, signed deals to lease compute capacity at its colossus 1 data center to companies like anthropic and google.
meta has invested heavily in ai infrastructure, with $182.9 billion committed as of the first quarter. projects include massive data centers in louisiana and ohio, the latter expected to come online this year. unlike google and openai, meta has not seen significant demand for its own ai models and services, and ai revenue is not yet a material standalone line. the new business, reportedly called meta compute, aims to generate returns on this spending.
the initiative will be led by head of infrastructure santosh janardhan, meta superintelligence labs leader daniel gross, and president dina powell mccormick. meta may copy coreweave's model of selling raw compute capacity and also offer access to various ai models, including its closed-weight model muse spark. ceo mark zuckerberg previously said a cloud computing business was 'definitely on the table' to recoup investments in ai superintelligence.
why it matters: this signals a shift where owning data centers may be more profitable than providing the best ai models, impacting how ai companies monetize infrastructure.
source: techcrunch ai: meta, like spacex, looks to turn excess ai compute into cash