Meta, which has built a massive scale of computing infrastructure to develop Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), is reportedly planning to sell its surplus resources to external parties.
Meta has launched an internal project called Meta Compute and is conceptualizing a cloud business model that utilizes its data center infrastructure, Bloomberg reported on July 1 (local time), citing multiple sources.
If Meta enters the cloud business, it is expected to cause a major shift in a market long dominated by three companies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
According to the sources, Meta is pursuing its cloud business strategy through two main approaches.
One approach involves hosting Meta's proprietary latest AI model, Muse Spark, on its infrastructure and allowing external developers to access it via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
This is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model similar to AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, and Google Cloud Vertex AI.
A more notable approach is to lease the raw computing power itself—the fundamental building block of data centers—to external parties.
This is closer to an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, which is primarily utilized by so-called neo-cloud companies such as CoreWeave and Nebius.
The project is being led by Santosh Janardhan, Meta's head of infrastructure; Daniel Gross of the Meta Superintelligence Lab (MSL); and Dina Powell McCormick, president of Meta.
Meta's move is interpreted as an effort to dispel concerns among investors that have recently grown over excessive investment in AI.
Meta has been aggressively building data center infrastructure, including purchasing expensive Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and other AI chips, under the goal of developing ASI.
Meta projects that its capital expenditure (CapEx) for this year, most of which is being poured into AI infrastructure, will reach 145 billion dollars (approximately 225 trillion won).
This direction from Meta is one that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already hinted at.
At a shareholders' meeting last May, when asked about the possibility of entering the cloud market, he replied that it was a perfectly viable option.
He stated, "Almost every week, external companies ask us to provide API services or if there are any computing resources they can purchase, even at a premium over what we paid."
He added, "When we decide that we are in a state of over-capacity, that will be an option, and that is one of the factors that gives us confidence in investing in building these facilities."
Meta is the only one among the four major hyperscalers (companies that operate large-scale AI data centers) that does not currently offer cloud services.
This shift in direction by Meta is similar to the recent moves made by Elon Musk's AI company, xAI.
xAI, a subsidiary of SpaceX, recently leased the computing resources of its massive Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, to companies like Anthropic and Google on an IaaS basis.
It is estimated that xAI spent about 30 billion dollars to build this data center, and industry observers note that the revenue generated from leasing it is nearing 30 billion dollars annually, meaning the investment costs could be fully recovered in one year.
Following the news of Meta's entry into the cloud market, Meta's stock price surged 8.8 percent on this day.
Conversely, the news sent an immediate shockwave through semiconductor and infrastructure-related stocks, as it fueled concerns that AI computing resources might be entering a state of oversupply.
Shares of related companies fell across the board, including Micron Technology (down 10.6 percent), Intel (down 9.0 percent), SanDisk (down 10.6 percent), Broadcom (down 2.2 percent), and Nvidia (down 1.3 percent).
In particular, the decline in Micron and SanDisk was interpreted as a combination of concerns over AI computing oversupply and profit-taking, as their stock prices had more than tripled in the second quarter alone.
The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), which tracks the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, fell 4.7 percent.
Shares of neo-cloud companies CoreWeave and Nebius, which now face Meta as a potential competitor, also plummeted by 14.0 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)