Meta has announced a significant partnership with AMD, revealing plans to acquire up to $100 billion worth of AMD chips over a multi-year deal. This agreement aims to drive data center power demand and diversify Meta’s chip suppliers beyond Nvidia, marking a strategic shift in the tech giant’s infrastructure.
The deal includes the issuance of a performance-based warrant for Meta to acquire up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, approximately 10% of the company, at a nominal price per share. The stock award is tied to specific milestones, with the final tranche dependent on AMD’s share price reaching $600.
Meta’s investment will focus on AMD’s MI540 GPUs and latest CPUs, emphasizing the growing importance of CPUs in AI inference compute stacks due to their efficiency and scalability benefits compared to Nvidia alternatives. AMD’s CEO, Lisa Su, highlighted the strong demand in the CPU market, driven by the expanding AI infrastructure deployments.
By partnering with AMD, Meta aims to reduce its reliance on Nvidia, a significant player in the AI chip market. This move follows a similar deal between AMD and OpenAI, indicating a broader trend among AI firms to diversify chip suppliers and avoid premium pricing.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, described the collaboration with AMD as crucial for the company’s compute diversification and pursuit of AI-powered capabilities that can empower individuals in various aspects of their lives.
Source: TechCrunch