Meta and Nvidia Renew Their Vows

Take that, Sundar Pichai! Three months after we scooped news that Meta Platforms was in talks to spend billions on Google AI chips—known as tensor processing units—for its data centers, Meta and Nvidia unveiled an expanded “multiyear, multigenerational strategic partnership.” Meta is a longtime Nvidia customer, of course, but it is recommitting to using “millions” of Nvidia’s AI chips as well as other Nvidia processors and gear. 

It’s not clear whether this deal precludes Meta also buying Google TPUs. Given Meta’s aggressive AI data center ambitions, it could buy chips from both companies. But you have to think that news of Meta’s interest in Google chips might have prompted Nvidia to double down on sales efforts with the Facebook owner, perhaps offering a discount. To be sure, we don’t know the terms of the agreement. We also don’t know whether the announcement constituted a purchase commitment by Meta beyond what it might already have been planning. Whatever the case, the news made investors feel better about Nvidia: sales of the AI chip giant closed up 1.2% and were trading up another 1% or so after-hours.