Meta Platforms, the company of Mark Zuckerberg, has signed a large-scale contract with Google to use its cloud services. According to Bloomberg, the deal is valued at more than \ billion, which Meta will pay over six years. This is the first such large-scale cooperation between the two technology giants in the field of cloud computing.

According to sources, the partnership will provide Meta with access to Google Cloud computing resources, including data storage infrastructure, networking solutions and other critical services. Such capacities are necessary for the company to support its large-scale projects in the field of artificial intelligence development, in particular language models.

Google Cloud, which currently occupies the third position in the global market after Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, has already had experience of cooperation with Meta. Previously, this platform gave developers the opportunity to work with open artificial intelligence models Llama through Vertex AI. This has allowed businesses and engineers to integrate Meta’s solutions into their own products without complex technical barriers.

The latest deal fits into Meta’s ambitious strategy to increase investment in artificial intelligence. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the company will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build new data centers for AI processing. Meta has already increased its annual capital expenditure forecast by another \ billion, demonstrating the scale of the approach.

Analysts Mandeep Singh and Robert Biggar note that Meta is actively working to improve the logical capabilities of its Llama model. This is especially relevant against the backdrop of the rapid development of competitors, whose solutions have already proven effective in the tasks of searching, writing code, creating operational summaries and translating texts.

The concluded deal not only strengthens Meta’s position in the field of artificial intelligence, but also demonstrates a new format of interaction between major players in the technology market. The partnership with Google will allow Zuckerberg to gain access to additional resources, while Google Cloud will gain one of the largest customers in the industry, which could affect the balance of power in the fight for global cloud market share.