Google and Meta have signed a major agreement to lease access to its custom AI chips to Meta for training large artificial intelligence models. This move signals a shift towards intelligence as a utility in the data economy, where the asset being purchased is not hardware or software but something more abstract and more powerful. While it appears to be purchasing Google's AI chips, Meta is leasing AI compute throughput rather than purchasing hardware. This model reduces the risk of technological obsolescence, avoids locking billions of dollars into hardware that may soon fall behind the next generation of chips, and allows Meta to diversify supply in a market where chip availability remains limited. The model also allows Meta flexibility as AI platforms evolve and allows the company to adapt its technology to meet changing requirements.