Meta cloud computing business ‘definitely on the table’, Mark Zuckerberg says – excess data center capacity could be used to enter the market

A Meta-owned cloud business would be "definitely on the table"Continued data center expansion will fuel the firm's ongoing AI effortsAll compute is allocated, but any future surplus could be sold on to customers

At its annual shareholders' meeting, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that a cloud business could be "definitely on the table" as the company continues to build out its data center footprint to support AI programs.

If Meta were to go down the cloud computing route, it would have to go up against very established hyperscalers. Amazon's business already occupies a third of the market, and Microsoft and Google jointly own another third.

Zuckerberg ultimately noted that, if Meta ends up with a surplus of compute infrastructure as part of its ongoing AI efforts, it could sell or rent that extra capacity to external customers.

Meta would consider selling excess compute via a cloud business

"Almost every week there are different companies that come to us from outside asking us to both stand up an API service or asking if we have compute that they could buy from us at some premium to what we've bought it at," he added.

Although the company doesn't currently sell cloud to customers, it continues to spend big on artificial intelligence. AI-related capex for 2026 is now estimated to be between $125 billion and $145 billion. That's only a touch behind the capex estimates of Google parent company Alphabet ($175 billon to $185 billion), Microsoft ($190 billion) and Amazon ($200 billion).

Zuckerberg explained the reason that Meta hasn't launched its own cloud compute yet is that it currently has a use for all of the capacity it's set to build, but that the company has confidence in continued investments because if it weren't to use all of that capacity, it could ultimately sell it on to customers.