Over $10 billion! Google Cloud secures a major deal with Meta

Google Cloud has achieved a milestone victory by reaching a historic agreement with one of its main competitors, Meta.

According to technology media The Information, informed sources revealed that Google has reached an agreement with Meta, allowing the latter to use Google Cloud's servers, storage, networking, and other services, with the agreement lasting six years and valued at over $10 billion.

It is reported that this deal is one of the largest known contracts for Google Cloud since its establishment 17 years ago, marking a key step in its pursuit of catching up with Amazon and Microsoft.

At the same time, the agreement comes as Meta is significantly expanding its computing power. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in July that the company would invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" to expand its computing capabilities to support its AI ambitions.

For many years, Meta has primarily relied on its self-built data centers to operate its social applications and other services.

However, in recent years, Meta has begun to embrace a "multi-cloud" strategy, signing agreements with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to rent cloud servers and jointly develop the AI application development toolkit PyTorch created by Meta. Additionally, Meta has also rented cloud servers from companies like Oracle and CoreWeave.

Incorporating Google Cloud into its vendor system will make Meta one of the largest global cloud customers alongside Apple and OpenAI. This move will not only enhance its ability to serve users globally but also give it more leverage in price negotiations with Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud businesses.

Both Competitors and Allies, Google Cloud Wins Competitor Favor

This deal between Google and Meta is the latest example of the complex relationships among tech giants.

In several cutting-edge fields such as digital advertising, artificial intelligence, and virtual and augmented reality, the two companies are direct competitors. However, this has not prevented them from collaborating on critical infrastructure.

According to a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit document, the two companies have even signed secret agreements in the past to address common business threats.

Entrusting business to competitors is not uncommon in the tech industry. For example, OpenAI signed a cloud computing agreement with Google earlier this year, while Google itself is heavily investing in AI to catch up with OpenAI.

Moreover, Apple, as a major competitor to Google’s Android mobile operating system, is also one of Google Cloud's largest customers, storing its iCloud user data on Google’s servers. Winning a client of Meta's magnitude further solidifies Google Cloud's market position.

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