Meta Seeks to Acquire RISC-V Chip Company
Meta acquires RISC-V chip startup Rivos to boost its in-house AI chip development and reduce reliance on Nvidia.
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Meta is set to acquire RISC-V chip startup Rivos to bolster its chip development team and reduce dependence on Nvidia GPU hardware. According to Bloomberg, the deal has not been publicly disclosed but has been confirmed by sources.
Rivos is a “stealth” chip startup focused on designing GPUs and AI accelerators based on the open RISC-V standard. The company’s IP includes SoCs and PCIe accelerators.
Meta has long been working on developing custom AI accelerators, a project named the “Meta Training and Inference Accelerator.” The MTIA chip, co-designed with Broadcom, may be based on the RISC-V architecture and has been manufactured at TSMC’s foundry. Meta’s accelerator completed a tape-out in March and has reportedly been deployed in limited capacity alongside Nvidia GPUs and AI accelerators in Meta’s data centers.
The final terms of the deal with Rivos remain uncertain. The startup was valued at $2 billion in its latest funding round, and its asking price is likely in the nine- to ten-figure range. The company may resist being absorbed into Meta’s internal development team, while Meta reportedly aims to acquire it as a new entity. Of course, the rumored deal may not materialize, as the current stage of external negotiations is unclear.