Alphabet and Meta Forge $10B Cloud Partnership Amid AI Push

Alphabet's Google Cloud secured a landmark $10 billion deal with Meta Platforms, sending both stocks higher in Friday trading. The six-year agreement provides Meta with infrastructure access as it escalates its artificial intelligence ambitions—despite the companies being fierce rivals in digital advertising.

Meta will leverage Google Cloud's storage, server, and networking capabilities while maintaining existing relationships with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The deal underscores the insatiable infrastructure demands of AI development, with cloud providers emerging as key beneficiaries of the technological arms race.

Market observers note the partnership's irony given the firms' competing advertising interests. Meta derived 98% of its H1 2025 revenue from digital ads—a sector where it directly competes with Google's dominant position. The collaboration signals how cloud services are becoming neutral territory for tech rivals pursuing AI supremacy.