Meta Sells AI Infrastructure Assets Worth $2 Billion, Find Partners To Develop Data Centers

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (photo: x @Jubayer7792821)

JAKARTA - Meta Platforms Inc. announced plans to sell data center assets worth US$2.04 billion (Rp 33.4 trillion) as part of a new strategy to share the cost burden of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. This move marks significant changes in Meta's approach and other major technology companies that have been known to finance their growth independently.

In its quarterly report released Friday August 1, Meta said it had approved plans in June to partially remove data center assets and classify them as held-for-sale (assets to be sold). The assets include land and data center construction projects that are expected to be donated to third parties within the next 12 months as part of the joint development of data centers.

The move aims to attract external financial partners in the construction of data centers that will be used to support the development of a generating AI technology. The social media company states that although most capital expenditures will still be funded internally, certain projects can attract significant external financing to provide flexibility if infrastructure needs change in the future.

"We are exploring ways to work closely with financial partners to develop a joint data center," said Susan Li, Meta's Chief Financial Officer, in a conference call following a earnings report last Wednesday.

Susan Li added that no transactions have been completed so far, but disclosures in financial reports show that this plan is getting more mature. The total assets that are now classified as ready to sell are up to 3.26 billion US dollars as of June 30, based on the filing. Meta did not record any losses in this reclassification, as assets were assessed based on recorded value or fair value minus selling costs, which were lower.

Meta itself declined to provide additional comments regarding this news. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that the company will invest hundreds of billions of dollars to build a huge AI data center supercluster, in order to realize its ambition to build superintelligence.

"Even this data center complex can cover most parts of Manhattan," he said.

In addition, Meta has also raised its annual capital expenditure projection from US$64-72 billion to US$66-72 billion. This is driven by better than expected advertising sales, thanks to the increased AI technology that helps in targeting and distributing advertising content more efficiently. This increase is considered capable of covering part of the soaring long-term infrastructure costs for AI development.

Meta's move reflects a growing trend among major tech companies, which are now starting to open up to external collaboration to finance AI's increasingly expensive infrastructure expansion.