Its own AI model running late, Meta wants to sell cloud and compute

Meta's flagship AI model may still be running late, but the company already has another plan. It is reportedly exploring a cloud business that would let companies rent its AI computing power, helping it recover billions spent on AI infrastructure.

In Short

• Meta may rent out AI computing power through a new cloud business
• This move comes as its own new Muse Spark AI model faces delays
• The plan of renting compute would place Meta against AWS, Azure and Google Cloud

Mark Zuckerberg had big ambitions for Meta's AI business. Billions of dollars have been poured into the effort, top AI researchers have been hired, rivals have been aggressively poached for talent, and the company has spent years trying to catch up in the generative AI race. But despite all that investment, Meta is still struggling to establish itself alongside industry leaders such as Anthropic or OpenAI. Now, the Facebook parent appears to be looking for another way to make money from its AI ambitions by renting its artificial intelligence infrastructure.

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta is considering turning its AI infrastructure into a cloud business by letting other companies rent its computing power, even as its own flagship AI model faces delays and remains unavailable to developers.

The report says Meta is weighing two options. One would let developers access AI models hosted on Meta's infrastructure and pay only for the computing power they use, similar to Amazon Web Services' Bedrock platform. The other would see Meta rent out its spare AI computing capacity, putting it in direct competition with AI cloud providers such as CoreWeave, as well as cloud giants including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

The reported cloud business is expected to operate under an internal project called Meta Compute, which manages the company's growing AI infrastructure

According to the report the strategy is still under discussion and could change. Meta has not commented on the reports.

But why does Meta want to sell cloud and compute?

Meta's cloud plans come as Big Tech companies are facing growing pressure to make money from their huge AI investments. Since OpenAI's ChatGPT kicked off the generative AI boom in late 2022, companies have been spending billions of dollars on data centres and Nvidia GPUs to build and run AI models.

Infact Meta is one of the biggest spenders in AI. Earlier this year, the company said it could invest as much as $145 billion in AI infrastructure in 2026. Zuckerberg has also said Meta's total AI investment could reach around $600 billion through 2028, adding on Threads that the company could spend even more if AI continues to advance rapidly.

After spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI, Meta now appears to be looking for a way to turn that investment into a new business.

Meta struggling in AI race

Notably, Meta's plans to make money by selling AI computing power come as the company is still trying to catch up with rivals in the AI race. While companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have released increasingly powerful AI models, Meta's own AI roadmap has faced delays.

In April, Meta unveiled Muse Spark, the first AI model from its revamped AI team. However, Reuters reported that the model has not yet been released to developers, while a Wall Street Journal report said there is currently no launch date. The delay has raised questions about whether Meta can catch up with rivals despite spending billions of dollars on AI talent and infrastructure.

Still, Zuckerberg has hinted that selling AI computing power has been on the table for some time. Speaking at Meta's shareholder meeting in May, he said companies approach Meta "almost every week" seeking access to its AI models or spare computing capacity, adding that entering the cloud computing business was "definitely on the table".

Meanwhile, investors appeared to welcome the idea. Meta's shares rose as much as 10 per cent during Wednesday's trading before closing nearly 9 per cent higher, as investors bet the cloud business could help generate a new revenue stream from the company's massive AI investments.

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