The global push for artificial intelligence dominance is no longer just about algorithms or models—it has become a full-scale contest over infrastructure. That reality was underscored on Thursday when Google struck a six-year cloud computing deal with Meta Platforms worth more than $10 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.
The deal, Google’s second major agreement in recent months after one with OpenAI, will see Meta rely on Google Cloud’s servers, storage, networking, and other services to power its massive AI ambitions. Information first reported the news. Neither Google nor Meta immediately responded to requests for comment.
Meta’s decision comes at a time when its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has openly acknowledged the scale of investment required to stay competitive in AI. In July, he said the company would spend “hundreds of billions of dollars” to build multiple massive AI data centers. Reflecting this commitment, Meta last month raised the lower end of its annual capital expenditure forecast by $2 billion, revising it to a range of $66 billion to $72 billion.
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To ease the financial pressure of such enormous infrastructure projects, Meta has also begun seeking outside partners. Earlier this month, the company disclosed in a filing that it plans to offload $2 billion in data center assets, a move seen as both a funding strategy and a signal of just how capital-intensive AI development has become.
Meta is not alone in this race. In June, Reuters reported that OpenAI was planning to add Google Cloud services to meet its surging demand for computing power—a striking collaboration given that the two firms are also rivals in AI innovation. OpenAI’s own infrastructure costs are already substantial: Microsoft, its primary partner, disclosed last year that it invested billions into building custom supercomputers specifically tailored for OpenAI’s workloads. Analysts view this as a long-term bet that AI’s exponential growth will justify the upfront cost.
The intensifying focus on infrastructure has transformed data centers, cloud storage, and computing power into the most valuable currency of the AI era. With AI models requiring unprecedented levels of computing capacity, the race is as much about securing reliable access to energy-hungry servers as it is about pushing forward software breakthroughs.
Google itself has been reaping rewards from this surge. In July, Alphabet’s cloud-computing unit reported an almost 32% jump in second-quarter revenue, surpassing expectations—a performance many analysts attribute to the wave of AI partnerships.
The $10 billion pact with Meta further cements Google Cloud’s role at the heart of AI expansion. But more broadly, it highlights a new reality: as companies chase the promise of artificial intelligence, infrastructure investment is emerging as the single biggest—and most expensive—bet on the future.
What is emerging, analysts say, is not simply a race to build the best AI models but a scramble to dominate the unseen scaffolding of the AI economy. Trillion-dollar tech firms are pouring unprecedented sums into the belief that today’s outlays will secure tomorrow’s dominance.
The deal between Google and Meta is just the latest signpost: the AI boom is rewriting the rules of competition, where victory may ultimately be decided not by who writes the smartest code, but by who builds the biggest—and most resilient—foundations.