TLDR
- Meta is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on Microsoft’s Azure cloud to access AI models.
- Meta uses trillions of AI tokens per week through the Azure Foundry platform.
- ByteDance has generally been Azure Foundry’s biggest spender, with Meta now joining the top tier.
- Other large Azure AI customers include Adobe, Perplexity, and Sierra.
- OpenAI still accounts for around 70% of Microsoft’s overall AI revenue.
Meta Platforms is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to access AI models through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, Bloomberg News reported, making it one of Microsoft’s largest AI customers.
Each week, Meta consumes trillions of tokens through Azure, which is the standard unit used to measure AI computing usage.
The news comes as both companies declined to comment when contacted by Seeking Alpha.
Microsoft’s AI marketplace, called Foundry, had 100,000 customers as of July. While the platform serves clients across manufacturing and transportation, its biggest spenders are still tech companies.
ByteDance has generally held the top spot as Foundry’s biggest spender. Meta now ranks among that elite group of top-tier customers.
Other notable names on the customer list include Adobe, AI search company Perplexity, and Sierra, a customer service AI startup co-founded by OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor.
How Meta Uses Azure AI
Meta is using Azure to support its own software development work. Developers at the company have used OpenAI models through Foundry to help evaluate the output of their own in-house models.
Meta’s Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth confirmed in July on the Big Technology podcast that the company rents leading AI models from outside providers as part of its development process, in addition to building its own.
Meta shops around for AI model access across multiple platforms, choosing based on availability and cost.
Microsoft’s Dependence on a Few Big Customers
Despite Foundry’s broad customer base, Microsoft remains heavily reliant on a small number of large tech customers for AI revenue.
OpenAI, Microsoft’s closest partner, accounted for around 70% of its total AI revenue in the most recent fiscal year. That concentration is a known pressure point for Microsoft’s cloud business.
Beyond model access, Microsoft also sells its Copilot AI assistant and rents out AI-focused computing power to customers.
Microsoft had already been supplying Meta with computing power for AI development before ChatGPT launched and reshaped the industry. Since then, Meta has become one of the largest builders of AI data centers in the world.
Meta is also developing its own API service to sell access to various AI models, which could eventually compete directly with Foundry.
Bosworth’s July comments confirmed Meta’s dual approach: building its own models while continuing to license technology from outside providers.
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