Meta Monetizes Megaprojects Amid AI Expansion
Meta, the tech giant and parent company of Facebook, plans to sell data center assets worth $2.04 billion as part of a broader strategy to share the financial burden of its expanding AI infrastructure. Reuters reported this development, citing the company’s latest quarterly filing released on Thursday.
According to the filing, Meta intends to jointly build data centers with financial partners by selling portions of its ongoing data center projects. The decision was approved in June, with the company reclassifying land and construction-in-progress assets as “held-for-sale.” These assets are expected to be transferred to third-party partners within the next 12 months.
As of June 30, the total value of Meta’s held-for-sale assets stood at $3.26 billion. The company stated that no losses were recorded from the reclassification, as the assets were valued at the lower of either their book value or market value.
This move signals a shift in strategy among big tech firms. Where companies like Google and Amazon traditionally funded their own infrastructure projects, the escalating costs of AI-powered data centers are now pushing firms to seek external investment.
“We are exploring ways to develop data centers in partnership with financial investors,” said Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li. “While we will still fund the majority of the costs, certain projects could involve significant outside financing. This gives us flexibility to adapt to evolving infrastructure needs in the future.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously announced the company's ambitious plans to build “superclusters” for AI and superintelligence, comparing the scale of these data centers to a sizable portion of Manhattan.
Coinciding with this announcement, Meta has also raised its annual capital expenditure forecast by $2 billion—from $66 billion to $72 billion. This adjustment comes amid a surge in advertising revenue, largely driven by improvements in AI-powered content delivery and targeting.
This increase in revenue, Meta said, is helping to partially offset the significant long-term costs associated with its AI infrastructure ambitions.
