Google caps Meta's Gemini AI access as computing crunch delays projects

Google has reportedly restricted Meta's access to its Gemini artificial intelligence models after the Facebook parent requested more computing capacity than the tech giant could provide, according to a report by the Financial Times. The move is said to have delayed some of Meta's internal AI initiatives and highlights the growing pressure on cloud infrastructure as demand for generative AI continues to surge.The report said Google informed Meta around March that it would be unable to fulfil the full Gemini computing capacity the company had sought to purchase. Meta's exceptionally high demand for access to Google's AI models reportedly made it one of the hardest-hit customers, with the capacity shortfall disrupting several AI projects under development.While Meta has been the most affected due to the scale of its requirements, the report added that other Google Cloud customers have also faced similar, though less severe, capacity constraints. Reuters said it could not independently verify the report, and neither Google nor Meta responded to requests for comment outside regular business hours.The reported restrictions have prompted Meta to encourage employees to use AI tokens more efficiently. AI tokens are the basic units used by large language models to process information, and reducing token usage can help lower the amount of computing power required to run AI workloads.The development comes at a time when technology companies are racing to expand their AI capabilities while grappling with limited access to specialised chips and cloud infrastructure. Despite billions of dollars being invested in new data centres and AI hardware, demand for computing resources continues to outpace supply.Google itself has acknowledged these infrastructure challenges. During Alphabet's first-quarter earnings announcement, CEO Sundar Pichai said Google Cloud could have posted even stronger growth if additional computing capacity had been available. The company reported Google Cloud revenue of $20 billion for the quarter but noted that infrastructure constraints also contributed to a sharp increase in its order backlog.Also read: Inside GPT-5.6: What OpenAI's newest AI models Sol, Terra and Luna bring to the table