Meta Inks Landmark $27 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal with Nebius
March 17, 2026
In a massive bet on the future of artificial intelligence, Meta Platforms Inc. has entered into a new five-year, $27 billion agreement with AI infrastructure provider Nebius. The deal, one of the largest single AI compute contracts on record, underscores the intensifying and capital-intensive race among tech giants to secure the hardware necessary to power next-generation AI models and services.
The agreement, announced on Monday, comprises two key components. First, Nebius, an Amsterdam-based neocloud vendor, will supply Meta with $12 billion worth of dedicated AI compute capacity across multiple global locations. This deployment is set to include one of the first large-scale implementations of Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin GPU platform, with deliveries scheduled to commence next year. Second, Meta has committed to purchasing an additional $15 billion in available compute capacity across specific Nebius clusters over the duration of the contract.
Nebius CEO Arkazy Volozh stated in a release, "We are pleased to expand our significant partnership with Meta as part of securing more large, long-term capacity contracts to accelerate the build-out and growth of our core AI cloud business." The announcement propelled Nebius's stock price up by 15% in midday trading, reflecting investor confidence in the deal's significance. This partnership follows closely on the heels of a separate $2 billion strategic investment in Nebius by AI chip leader Nvidia, revealed just last week.
For Meta, this represents the latest in a series of colossal infrastructure investments. It builds upon a previous $3 billion agreement with Nebius from November 2025 and follows a major, undisclosed multi-billion dollar deal with Nvidia in late February for its Grace CPUs and next-generation GPUs. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously indicated the company could spend up to $135 billion on AI-related expenses in 2026 alone.
The scale of these expenditures highlights the strategic imperative for companies like Meta to lock in scarce, high-performance computing resources. However, this aggressive spending spree coincides with growing industry speculation about potential cost-cutting measures. According to a Reuters report citing three sources, Meta is considering workforce reductions that could affect approximately 20% of its employees, or about 16,000 people. Meta has declined to comment on these layoff rumors.
Source: aibusiness
Meta Inks Landmark $27 Billion AI Infrastructure Deal with Nebius
