rivos: Meta to acquire chip startup Rivos to strengthen AI plans

Meta Platforms Inc. is buying chip startup Rivos Inc. The deal is part of Meta’s plan to strengthen its own semiconductor development and control more of its AI infrastructure. Rivos is creating its own GPU. A GPU is the chip that powers most AI work. Meta already has its own in-house chip project called the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, as per Bloomberg report.

Meta still spends billions on outside GPUs. Despite its internal work, Meta depends heavily on market leader Nvidia Corp. for chips. Deal terms are not public. But in August, Rivos was raising new funding at a $2 billion valuation, according to The Information.

Meta wants to cut Nvidia reliance

Meta wants to cut Nvidia reliance. The company has been making custom AI inference chips to lower costs and become less dependent on Nvidia as it pursues its dream of “superintelligence” — AI that can do tasks as well as or better than humans.
Meta’s chip progress is too slow for CEO Mark Zuckerberg. People familiar with the matter said Zuckerberg is not happy with the pace, and leadership has been searching for outside help to boost the work. The Meta spokesperson disagreed. The company said, “our custom silicon work is progressing quickly and this will further accelerate our efforts”, as stated by Bloomberg.

Meta spends billions on AI growth

Zuckerberg made AI the company’s top priority. Meta is spending heavily on AI talent and infrastructure to compete with OpenAI and Google (Alphabet Inc.). Meta plans to spend up to $72 billion this year. This includes AI infrastructure. The company also raised $29 billion recently to build a massive data center in Louisiana.

This is not the first chip acquisition attempt. Earlier this year, Meta tried to buy Korean startup FuriosaAI for $800 million, but FuriosaAI rejected the deal and decided to grow independently, according to the report by Bloomberg.