Meta intends to acquire chip startup Rivos to strengthen its in-house semiconductor capabilities.
The Santa Clara, California-based startup, backed by Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, specializes in designing chips based on the RISC-V architecture, an open-source alternative to architectures produced by Arm, Intel, and AMD.
Rivos brings expertise in building full-stack AI systems, Meta’s vice president of engineering Yee Jiun Song said in a LinkedIn post.
Meta plans to expand work on the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), its line of custom-built in-house chip accelerators, he added.
The chip startup was approaching a new funding round with an estimated valuation of around $2 billion, a source familiar with the matter said.
Another source said that Meta, one of Rivos’ largest customers, has been discussing a potential deal with the startup.
“Our custom silicon work is progressing quickly and this will further accelerate our efforts,” a Meta spokesperson said.
Earlier this year, Meta tested its first in-house chip for AI system training as the company works to reduce infrastructure costs tied to advanced AI tools.
The Instagram and Facebook owner has spent heavily on in-demand AI chips from Nvidia.
