The Information reported on Thursday that Meta Platforms has entered into a multi-billion-dollar agreement to rent artificial intelligence chips from Google to create new AI models.
The multi-year deal report is released at a time when businesses invest billions of dollars into chips and AI infrastructure in order to keep up with artificial intelligence demand. Meta and Google declined Reuters’ request for comment.
Advanced Micro Devices announced earlier this week that it would sell AI chips worth up to $60 billion to Meta. The Facebook owner also signed a deal with Nvidia to purchase its existing and future AI chips earlier this month.
Reuters stated in December that Google was working to make its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) a viable alternative to Nvidia’s market-leading GPUs.
TPU sales have taken over as a key driver of the growth of the Google Cloud revenue as it tries to demonstrate to investors that its investments in AI are generating results.
The Information stated on Thursday that Meta is also considering purchasing the TPUs for its data centers as soon as next year, though the viability of the discussions with Google could not be found out.
The report also cited that Google signed an agreement with an undisclosed large investment firm to fund a joint venture, which would lease TPUs to other customers.
The report also notes that Meta may be considering directly buying TPUs to use in its own data centres as soon as next year, but the extent of those discussions is unclear.
Google is reported to have collaborated with a huge investment company to establish a joint venture that would lease TPUs to other customers, a model that would speed up distribution whilst sharing financial risk.
The changes highlight a changing relationship between hyperscalers. Although Meta and Google engage in competition in the advertising sector, in social media and AI services, the existence of infrastructure partnerships is becoming more widespread.
The availability of high-performance chips has become one of the most strategic levers in the industry in the AI era, transforming alliances throughout Silicon Valley.
