Meta Platforms has entered into a landmark cloud computing deal with Google worth more than $10 billion, underscoring the social media giant’s intensifying investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The six-year agreement will see Meta leverage Google Cloud’s servers, storage, networking, and related services to support its growing AI operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deal highlights how Google Cloud, the third-largest player in cloud infrastructure, is steadily gaining ground against larger rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Earlier this year, Google also secured business from OpenAI, a long-time Microsoft partner, in another sign of its rising clout in the AI-driven cloud market. Alphabet reported in July that its cloud unit grew revenue 32% year-on-year to $13.6 billion in the second quarter, generating $2.83 billion in operating income.
For Meta, the partnership comes as part of a broader push to scale up AI infrastructure while diversifying beyond its own data centers. The company has already committed to using services from Amazon and Microsoft, and is reportedly offloading $2 billion in data center assets to help fund its expansion. Meta’s expenses for 2025 are projected to reach as high as $118 billion, much of it directed toward building and deploying its Llama family of AI models and integrating artificial intelligence into its suite of platforms.
Although Meta and Google remain fierce rivals in digital advertising, the collaboration underscores the sheer scale of resources required to compete in AI. As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted earlier this year, the company is preparing to spend “hundreds of billions of dollars” to construct massive AI data centers capable of supporting its long-term ambitions.
By tapping Google Cloud, Meta is not only securing additional computing capacity but also contributing to the reshaping of competitive dynamics in both cloud computing and artificial intelligence — sectors where collaboration and rivalry increasingly go hand in hand.
