Eager to establish dominance in artificial intelligence, Meta has signed up to use cloud-computing services from Google Cloud in a deal worth at least $10 billion over six years, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The deal would expand Meta’s capabilities as it continues to push into AI tools and services across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. AI requires an enormous amount of computing resources, which requires more data center bandwidth. In turn, those data centers need an increasing amount of electricity and water to run and cool the hardware inside.
Meta is also spending big to build its own AI data centers, including a 4-million-square-foot facility in Louisiana, called Hyperion, which it plans to open by 2030.
Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the report. Google declined to comment.
Meta’s big AI push
In recent months, Meta has been on a hiring spree to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to hire a superstar team to work on its AI projects, including its Llama AI platform. Recently, though, reports suggest that AI-related hiring may be paused as the company reevaluates its artificial intelligence strategy.
Meta continues to roll out new AI tools and features regardless, including AI translations for Facebook and Instagram.
Meanwhile, a deal with Meta could give Google Cloud a boost as what Bloomberg describes as a “one-stop shop” for AI services. In June, OpenAI joined forces with Google Cloud to use its data centers.
