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Meta Stock Surges on Report It’s Building a Cloud Business. CoreWeave Drops.
By Adam Clark
Updated July 01, 2026, 2:26 pm EDT / Original July 01, 2026, 9:05 am EDT
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Meta Platforms plans to build a cloud business to sell excess artificial-intelligence computing capacity, according to a report.
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Meta hopes to generate revenue from selling excess computing power to third parties.
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Meta shares rise, while CoreWeave and Nebius drop sharply.
Shares of Meta Platforms spiked following a report that the company might launch build a cloud business to sell excess artificial-intelligence computing capacity.
Meta hopes to generate revenue by selling surplus computing power to third parties, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Whether that means offering access to general computing capacity or access to Meta-hosted AI models, it marks a major pivot for the company, which historically has used its infrastructure for internal workloads rather than commercial cloud services.
Meta stock rose 10% to $621.40, pacing toward its largest single-day jump since January, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Meta was among the biggest gainers in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 on Wednesday.
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The company declined to comment on the report. If it proves to be true, it’s bad news for so-called neoclouds that are also in the business of selling AI computing power as Meta pivots from a major customer to a potential rival.
CoreWeave and Nebius Group fell 12% and 14%, respectively. Meta has cloud computing agreements with both companies: In April, Meta signed an expanded agreement with CoreWeave through 2032, just a month after securing a new long-term infrastructure agreement with Nebius for capacity starting in 2027.
Entering the commercial cloud market would also bring Meta into direct competition with Amazon.com, Microsoft, and Alphabet-owned Google. All three stocks briefly dipped in premarket trading before recovering; Microsoft led the pack after the opening bell, rising 4%.
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If Meta enters the cloud sector, it will signal to the market that the company has over-provisioned its AI infrastructure. Meta has previously said the technology is contributing to boosting its social-media business and it recently unveiled plans to sell consumer subscriptions to its Meta AI chatbot to offset the billions it is spending.
The company plans to spend roughly $135 billion on its data-center buildout this year, doubling down on its expansion even as investors fret over Meta’s ability to generate returns on the massive investment.
A cloud business might ease these concerns. Previously, the company had to justify AI investments purely through internal operations, whereas rivals could point to their cloud-computing divisions.
And while robust advertising revenue boosted recent earnings, skepticism remains over the company’s ability to launch a cutting-edge foundation model to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT series, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude. By selling its infrastructure, Meta can establish a steady revenue stream to subsidize this effort, buying the company time to catch up to its competitors.
Coming into Wednesday’s session, shares were down 14% in 2026, reflecting investor worries over the company’s lofty AI spending. Following the report, the stock rallied to clear its 50-day moving average for the first time since early June.
Without any confirmation from Meta, it’s unclear how long this upward momentum will last. However, the prospect aligns with commentary from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who told shareholders in May that a move into cloud computing was definitely “on the table.”
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Now, that seems one step closer to fruition.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.comExternal link and Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.comExternal link
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