Meta and Broadcom co-develop chips
Meta announced a multi‑year partnership with Broadcom to co‑develop multiple generations of custom AI silicon as it builds out long‑term compute capacity, using language that references “multi‑gigawatts” of deployment. (about.fb.com) (globenewswire.com)
Meta and Broadcom said Tuesday they will co-develop Meta’s custom artificial intelligence chips through 2029, locking in a long-term supply and design partnership for Meta’s data centers. (about.fb.com) Meta said the work will cover multiple generations of its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator, or MTIA, chips across design, advanced packaging and networking. Broadcom said the initial deployment commitment is more than 1 gigawatt of MTIA capacity and described it as the first phase of a broader multi-gigawatt rollout. (about.fb.com) (broadcom.com) A custom artificial intelligence chip is a processor built for one company’s own workloads instead of for the wider market. Meta uses MTIA for recommendation systems, generative artificial intelligence features and other internal computing jobs that run across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. (about.fb.com 1) (about.fb.com 2) The deal lands as Meta is speeding up its chip roadmap. In March, the company said it planned to develop and deploy four new MTIA generations within two years, a pace it said is faster than typical chip cycles. (about.fb.com) Meta is also spending at a scale that makes chip control more urgent. On January 28, Meta told investors it expects 2026 capital expenditures of $115 billion to $135 billion, up from $72.22 billion in 2025, with infrastructure investment driving much of the increase. (investor.atmeta.com) Broadcom said the new systems will use its custom accelerator platform and Ethernet networking to connect large clusters of chips inside Meta’s artificial intelligence data centers. The company also said the program includes what it called the industry’s first 2-nanometer artificial intelligence compute accelerator. (broadcom.com) That gives Meta a deeper in-house alternative to buying more general-purpose graphics processing units from outside suppliers. Reuters reported the expanded agreement covers several generations of Meta chips as the company races to add computing capacity for artificial intelligence features across its apps. (reuters.com) The partnership also changes a governance tie between the companies. CNBC reported that Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan told Meta he will not stand for reelection to Meta’s board after the companies announced the expanded chip deal. (cnbc.com) For Meta, the immediate next step is not a single chip launch but a buildout plan measured in power draw, factory process nodes and years. The companies have now tied that plan to a 2029 timeline and an opening commitment of more than 1 gigawatt. (about.fb.com) (broadcom.com)
