Meta may spend billions to acquire promising AI accelerator startup to loosen reliance on Nvidia by supercharging its own MTIA AI chip - but what will Jensen say?

• Meta exploring Rivos acquisition to accelerate AI chip development and reduce Nvidia reliance
• Meta executives reportedly frustrated with slow internal chip progress
• Chip acquisitions could be critical for scaling AI training and inference and Rivos has RISC-V expertise

Meta is reportedly looking to acquire chip startup Rivos in a deal aimed at strengthening its in-house semiconductor program and giving the company more control over its AI infrastructure and greater independence from Nvidia.

Although Meta already has its own chip project, Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), like all hyperscalers it still spends heavily on GPUs from Nvidia - a dependence which has become costly as the company scales up its AI ambitions.

Reporting on the deal, Bloomberg says the terms of the acquisition have not been made public, but in April 2024, Rivos raised $250M in Series A.3 funding to fuel its global growth, and any sale price is expected to be in the high nine to ten figure range.

Apple lawsuit

Bloomberg says some Meta executives have been dissatisfied with the slow pace of internal chip work, leading its leadership to explore ways to speed up progress, including external acquisitions.

In 2024, the company tried to acquire Korean chip startup FuriosaAI for $800 million, roughly $300 million over the startup’s estimated market value, but ultimately failed because of a disagreement with the planned direction post-acquisition.

Not so long ago Meta was all-in on the Metaverse (to the point of even changing the company’s name) but now Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says AI is the company’s top priority, with spending commitments reaching tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure and talent.

If the Rivos deal goes through, Meta will benefit from a team capable of building high-profile RISC-V chips, which could be tailored for its AI workloads.

Although Rivos seems like a good fit for Meta, the startup has faced some controversy in the past.

In 2022, Apple accused the company of stealing trade secrets via former employees, a dispute that was resolved last year after counterclaims were filed.

Meta’s acquisition talks show the social media’s giant’s determination to bring more of its AI supply chain under its own roof, but whether the deal goes through or not remains to be seen.

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