Zuckerberg Says Meta Weighs Renting Out Some AI Compute Amid Tight Supply

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on July 9 that the company needs as much computing power as possible, but is considering whether renting out part of its AI infrastructure to external customers could create more value as AI compute remains in short supply, according to Jiemian News. In an interview, Zuckerberg said market bids for compute are currently very high and that in some cases it could be more economical to lease capacity rather than keep it for internal use, or to explore similar transactions. He added that opportunities to develop a cloud business “always exist” and Meta could pursue it whenever it chooses, following earlier reports that Meta is planning a cloud computing business to generate revenue from its data centers and compute partners. Zuckerberg stressed this does not mean Meta has overbuilt or has idle capacity, saying the company is currently using all the compute resources it has.