Microsoft, Meta Fuel $700 Billion Boom in Data Center Leases (1)

Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. each committed nearly $50 billion in additional data center leases in their most recent quarters, underscoring an escalating bet the tech industry is making on artificial intelligence.

Those pledges helped push overall commitments to future data center leases above $700 billion among the largest cloud computing companies, a group that also includes Oracle Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. These obligations have steadily climbed over the last year as tech giants ink deals to rent server farms, according to a Bloomberg analysis of quarterly filings.

The future costs, which come on top of active leases, won’t ...