Meta Platforms is expected to announce a cloud computing business on July 29, opening a new revenue stream beyond social media advertising.
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Meta's $10 billion Anthropic deal could unlock cloud revenue stream
Meta Platforms is expected to announce a cloud computing business on July 29, opening a new revenue stream beyond social media advertising.
Meta Platforms is in advanced talks to lease computing capacity to Anthropic in a two-year deal valued at $10 billion, a move that would transform the social media giant into a commercial cloud provider and compete directly with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
"The neocloud model lets hyperscalers monetize excess AI infrastructure without building a separate sales organization," Mark Mahaney, an analyst at Evercore, said. "Meta has the capacity; the question is whether enterprises trust a social media company with their workloads."
Meta has pledged to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 alone, primarily to develop its artificial intelligence capabilities, after spending almost $70 billion on capex in 2025. The proposed Anthropic arrangement would allow the AI startup to lease Meta's computing capacity over the next two years, generating direct revenue from infrastructure that otherwise would sit idle between Meta's own training runs.
The move addresses a structural challenge for Meta: the company's 3.56 billion daily active users — roughly 43% of the world's population — leave limited room for user growth in its core social media business. Cloud computing offers a new addressable market. The global cloud infrastructure market was valued at more than $330 billion in 2025, with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud controlling roughly two-thirds of that spending, according to Synergy Research Group.
The $125 billion infrastructure bet
Meta's capital spending plan for 2026 alone exceeds the entire annual revenue of most cloud providers. The company's $125 billion to $145 billion capex range is more than double the $58 billion Amazon spent on AWS infrastructure in 2025, according to Amazon's annual filing. That scale gives Meta the capacity to serve both its own AI models and external customers.
The deal with Anthropic is not yet final and could still fall through, people familiar with the matter said. But demand for cloud infrastructure across the market remains strong, with enterprises racing to deploy generative AI applications. If Meta proceeds, it would join a growing group of "neocloud" providers — specialized infrastructure companies that offer raw computing power without the full suite of cloud services that AWS, Azure and Google Cloud provide.
What it means for investors
Meta shares trade at 23 times forward earnings, the lowest multiple among the Magnificent Seven stocks, partly because investors have struggled to identify a clear growth driver beyond digital advertising. A cloud business could change that calculus. If Meta captures even 2% of the cloud infrastructure market, it would represent roughly $6.6 billion in annual revenue — equivalent to about 4% of Meta's 2025 revenue base.
The July 29 earnings call will be the key moment. If chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg confirms the Anthropic deal or outlines a broader cloud strategy, the stock could see a revaluation as analysts incorporate a new revenue stream into their models. If he remains silent on cloud, the uncertainty around Meta's massive capex spend will persist.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
[1] Prediction: Meta Platforms Will Soar on July 29 When It Makes This Announcement[2] Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Is in Talks for a $10 Billion Anthropic Deal That Would Make Meta the Fourth Major Cloud Provider. Meta Stock Reports Q2 Earnings on July 29.[3] If Mark Zuckerberg says these words on July 29, Meta Platforms' stock could skyrocket[4] Meta in talks for $10B Anthropic deal to boost cloud services presence[5] Tens of thousands of tech workers are being laid off in 2026. The $725 billion that replaced them is going to four companies.
