Meta acquiring chip startup Rivos Inc. for in-house umph.
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Does Meta want to compete with Nvidia? Here’s a sign of its growing ambition in chips.
Story by Britney Nguyen • 13h
Meta Platforms Inc. has raised its capital-expenditures guidance more than once this year as it pursues the lead in the artificial-intelligence race — and a new acquisition could be the latest boost to its position.
The tech giant is acquiring chip startup Rivos Inc. to build on its in-house chip development, a person familiar with the matter confirmed with MarketWatch. Bloomberg News first reported the deal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The startup is working on its own graphics processing unit, which was popularized by Nvidia Corp. for improving videogame graphics, and which has gained more prominence in recent years for powering the current generative AI boom.
The acquisition is intended to help Meta scale up computing to meet its AI infrastructure needs. The company is already working on its own chips that are customized for its AI workloads, called the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator. But like many of its peers, Meta spends billions of dollars on GPUs from Nvidia, and acquiring Rivos could help it wean off its dependence on the chip maker.
See more: Google, Meta and Amazon are facing an expensive AI risk that nobody is paying attention to
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly dissatisfied with the company’s internal chip development, and company executives have sought external help to speed up its efforts, Bloomberg reported. One of those options was Korean chip startup FuriosaAI, but the company denied Meta’s acquisition offer of $800 million, Bloomberg reported in March.
The acquisition comes after Rivos was said to be looking for up to $500 million in funding, the Information reported in August, and eyeing a $2 billion valuation.
“Our custom-silicon work is progressing quickly and this will further accelerate our efforts,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement shared with MarketWatch.
Rivos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta’s stock fell 1.2% on Tuesday, and has lost 7.4% since closing at a record $790 on Aug. 12. Meanwhile, Nvidia shares gained 2.6% on the day, for another record close.
In July, Meta raised its full-year capex guidance range to between $66 billion and $72 billion, three months after it had set guidance at between $64 billion and $72 billion. Meta Chief Financial Ifficer Susan Li said that it expects similar capex growth in 2026 “as we continue aggressively pursuing opportunities to bring additional capacity online to meet the needs of our artificial-intelligence efforts and business operations.”
Nvidia dominates the market for AI chips, but its customers are searching for alternatives to reduce reliance on the chip maker as demand for AI computing soars. One of those options is application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, which companies such as Broadcom Inc. specialize in. ASICs are designed for specific AI applications, making them appealing to major tech firms that want to optimize AI systems for their AI workloads.
Read: Broadcom is starting to look ‘eerily reminiscent’ of Nvidia. Both stocks are feeling the impact.
PS
Leading-Edge guys?
Shrink n Stack maniacs.
:-)
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