Meta’s Cloud Gambit Gains Legal Clarity as Judge Refuses to Block Layoffs While $10 Billion Anthropic Talks Advance
Published on 07/18/2026 at 18:44 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A federal judge in Oakland cleared the way for Meta to proceed with a fresh round of job cuts on Friday, rejecting a bid by 26 employees to halt their dismissals amid allegations the company used artificial intelligence to disproportionately target workers with disabilities or on medical leave. The ruling from Judge William Orrick removes a near-term legal hurdle just as Meta pushes deeper into negotiations for a first-of-its-kind cloud deal that could reshape how it monetises its sprawling AI infrastructure.
While the affected staff had sought an injunction to stop their terminations, Orrick allowed Meta to move forward with the layoffs as planned from July 22. He noted that the lawsuit raised “serious questions” about the company’s conduct but ordered the core dispute into private arbitration. Meta has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that human managers — not algorithms — made the termination decisions. The legal skirmish comes after the company cut roughly 8,000 jobs in May, equivalent to about 10% of its global workforce, and follows fresh reports that it is planning an even deeper reduction of more than 20% of headcount, or around 16,000 positions.
The cloud talks with Anthropic represent a potential strategic shift for Meta, which has historically used its computing power almost entirely for internal purposes. The two sides are discussing a deal worth up to $10 billion over two years, structured with monthly payments and exit clauses for both parties. Anthropic itself proposed the arrangement in June. If signed, the agreement would mark Meta’s entry into the cloud-computing business — a field CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said is “definitely on the table” after fielding frequent requests from other companies to buy spare capacity.
Anthropic already has a much larger three-year, $45 billion infrastructure contract with SpaceX, meaning the potential Meta deal would represent roughly a third of that volume. The AI start-up is also preparing for an initial public offering that could take place as early as October. Meta separately maintains supply agreements with CoreWeave worth $21 billion and with Nebius for up to $27 billion.
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Chip Production and a Cloud Veteran Onboard
Parallel to the negotiation, Meta is accelerating its own hardware roadmap. Its in-house artificial intelligence chip, code-named Iris, is slated to enter production in September 2026. Designed in collaboration with Broadcom and manufactured by TSMC, the chip will complement existing purchases from Nvidia and AMD as Meta aims to double its total compute capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027. The company is also expanding its Hyperion data center in Louisiana to 5 gigawatts, backed by more than $50 billion in capital commitments.
To oversee that global infrastructure push, Meta has hired Dave Brown, a 19-year Amazon veteran who most recently served as Senior Vice President for Compute and AI at Amazon Web Services. Brown will take charge of Meta’s worldwide data center program, reporting to infrastructure chief Santosh Janardhan, and will depart AWS at the end of July. His successor at Amazon is Dave Treadwell.
Skyrocketing Spending and Market Caution
The capital expenditure required to sustain those ambitions has jolted some investors. Meta now expects to spend between $125 billion and $145 billion in 2026, up from $72 billion the prior year — more than doubling its outlay. Analysts at Goldman Sachs have warned that industry-wide AI investment totals may be underestimated, and Warren Buffett recently cautioned CNBC about speculative market behaviour tied to the high cost of artificial intelligence.
Reflecting that unease, Meta’s stock closed Friday at €565.10, down 2.67% on the day and 3.62% for the week. Over a 30-day horizon, however, the shares are still up 14.53%, illustrating the volatile mood. The current price sits 16.63% below the 52-week high of €677.80 reached in late July 2025. Meta is scheduled to report second-quarter results after market close on July 29, which will offer analysts a fresh look at both its advertising revenue and the early financial contours of its cloud pivot.
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Model Stumbles Raise Stakes
The company’s internal AI struggles add a layer of complexity. Its proprietary large language model, code-named Avocado, has suffered repeated delays and is widely seen as trailing behind the offerings of Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. In response, Meta is reportedly considering licensing Google’s Gemini technology to close the gap — a move that would underline how far it lags in the model race even as it pours tens of billions into compute infrastructure.
For shareholders, the picture is increasingly split. On one side, Meta is positioning itself as a future cloud provider, leveraging its own chip, freshly recruited executive talent, and a possible anchor customer in Anthropic. On the other, questions persist about whether the model development can keep pace with the scale of spending. The legal ruling on Friday at least removes one distraction, allowing management to focus on closing the cloud deal and delivering the Iris chip — but a signed contract with Anthropic remains the missing piece that would validate the entire strategy.
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