Meta shares rise 6% after report of AI cloud business

Shares of Meta Platforms surged on Wednesday following a report that the company is building a cloud infrastructure business to sell its excess artificial intelligence computing power and models to outside customers. The stock jumped roughly 6% in premarket trading, with gains holding into the morning session.

The report, published by Bloomberg, cited people familiar with the matter and said the internal initiative is called "Meta Compute." The company is reportedly considering two main offerings: providing access to AI models hosted on its infrastructure, similar to Amazon Web Services' Bedrock platform, and renting out raw computing capacity. This would position Meta to compete directly with established cloud giants like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, while also challenging newer "neocloud" providers that specialize in AI compute.

Meta has not confirmed the plans. The company did not respond to requests for comment, and Reuters noted it could not independently verify the report.

The news reframes Meta's massive capital expenditures on AI infrastructure from a pure cost into a potential new revenue stream. The company recently raised its 2026 capital...