Google has reportedly limited Meta’s access to its Gemini artificial intelligence models after the social media company requested more computing capacity than Google could provide. The reported shortage has disrupted some of Meta’s internal AI projects and highlighted the growing pressure on technology companies to secure enough computing resources for advanced AI development.
According to the report, Google informed Meta around March that it could not meet the full Gemini capacity the company wanted to purchase. As a result, several of Meta’s artificial intelligence initiatives experienced delays, while other Google customers also faced reduced access, although their disruptions were reportedly less significant.
Meta was said to be among the most heavily affected customers because of its exceptionally high demand for Google’s AI models. Consequently, the company has encouraged employees to use AI tokens more efficiently, as these units measure the amount of computing power consumed when running artificial intelligence models and related services.
The reported capacity constraints reflect a broader challenge facing the technology industry despite billions of dollars being invested in chips, data centres and AI infrastructure. Demand for artificial intelligence services continues to grow faster than available computing resources, creating supply limitations even for some of the world’s largest technology companies.
Meanwhile, Google Cloud generated $20 billion in revenue during the first quarter ending in March, demonstrating strong demand for its cloud services. However, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai previously acknowledged that limited computing capacity prevented even stronger growth and contributed to a sharp increase in the cloud division’s order backlog.