Meta Bet on NVIDIA Multi-Year Deal for Blackwell and Rubin Chips Secured.
Meta Strikes Multi-Year Mega-Deal with NVIDIA as In-House Chip Ambitions Face Hurdles
In a massive strategic move, Meta has announced a long-term partnership with NVIDIA to secure a massive supply of AI hardware. The agreement encompasses the purchase of Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin GPUs, alongside Grace and Vera CPUs, and Spectrum-X Ethernet networking equipment for Meta’s global AI data centers.
Historic Deployment of Standalone CPUs
This deal marks a significant milestone for NVIDIA, as Meta becomes the first hyperscaler to initiate a large-scale NVIDIA Grace-only deployment. Unlike traditional AI servers that pair CPUs with GPUs, Meta is utilizing standalone Grace processors to power backend data center tasks and "agentic AI" workloads that do not require GPU acceleration.
Current and Future Hardware Roadmap:
Immediate Infrastructure: Meta is currently scaling its systems with the GB300 architecture (Grace + Blackwell).
Future-Proofing: The agreement includes the next-generation Rubin GPU and Vera CPU, with mass deliveries expected to commence in 2027.
Technical Challenges Behind the Scenes
While Meta has long touted its internal silicon projects, such as the Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA), reports from the Financial Times suggest the company's in-house ambitions have hit a snag. Technical challenges with the latest MTIA iterations have reportedly left Meta with no choice but to double down on NVIDIA’s ecosystem to keep pace with rivals like Google and Amazon.
Insider sources indicate that Meta's massive acquisition of NVIDIA chips is due to the development of its new flagship model, codenamed "Avocado," the successor to Llama 4. This model requires several times more processing power to push the limits of AI reasoning.
In addition to the Grace chips, the deal also includes the "Vera" chip, NVIDIA's newest CPU designed specifically to work with the Rubin GPU. Vera is projected to offer twice the performance per watt of typical x86 chips, allowing Meta to significantly reduce power costs in gigawatt-scale data centers.
Meta's choice of Spectrum-X Ethernet over traditional InfiniBand reflects its need for flexibility in hyperscale network expansion, where Ethernet has the advantage of connecting millions of servers.
Rumors of MTIA's problems could impact Broadcom, a key partner in Meta's chip design. Meta's aggressive return to NVIDIA in 2026 could signify another shift in the global AI chip supply chain.
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Source: Financial Times

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