Meta Platforms is pressing ahead with efforts to bring in outside partners to help fund the massive infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence (AI).
In a filing last week, Meta disclosed plans to offload $2 billion (€1.7b) in data centre assets as part of that strategy.
According to a Reuters analysis, the strategy reflects a broader shift among tech giants — long known for self-funding growth — as they grapple with the soaring cost of building and powering data centres to support generative AI.
“We’re exploring ways to work with financial partners to co-develop data centres,” Meta's Chief Finance Officer, Susan Li, said on a post-earnings conference call.
While the company still expects to fund much of its capital spending internally, some projects could attract “significant external financing” and offer more flexibility if infrastructure needs shift over time, Li said. The company did not have any finalised transactions to announce, she said.
In its quarterly filing, Meta said it approved a plan in June to dispose of certain data centre assets and reclassified $2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as “held-for-sale”.
These assets were expected to be contributed to a third party within the next twelve months for co-developing data centres.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has laid out plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into constructing AI data centre “superclusters” for superintelligence.
