Nvidia enhances partnership with social media giant Meta to deploy “millions” of its GPUs

Meta is laying it out in no uncertain terms: its AI build-out will be brought to you by Nvidia.

In pair of press releases after the close on Tuesday, the social media giant and chip designer detailed a “multi-year, multi-generational strategic partnership” that “will enable the large-scale deployment of NVIDIA CPUs and millions of NVIDIA Blackwell and Rubin GPUs, as well as the integration of NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet switches for Meta’s Facebook Open Switching System platform.”

There’s also a deeper integration with a very commonly used communications tool at play. “Meta has adopted NVIDIA Confidential Computing for WhatsApp private processing, enabling AI-powered capabilities across the messaging platform,” per the press release.

The press release did not spell out any contractual purchase obligations on Meta’s behalf, but is more of a statement of intent on how aligned the parties plan to be in attempting to deliver on the promise of the AI boom.

One obvious winner, of course, is Nvidia, as investors may now have a clearer line of sight to millions of GPU sales that include not only this generation, but future editions, as well. The inclusion of CPUs in this pact, with an expanded role in data center environments, is also good news for Arm Holdings, whose IP was utilized to develop these products.

The Takeaway

The losers? Nvidia’s competitors in...

…AI chips: Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom, as the dominant incumbent’s big, long-term deal with a hyperscaler seemingly reduces their ability to gain market share.

…CPUs: Intel, and for that matter, AMD again.

And an established Meta networking client: Arista Networks, which is seeing Nvidia muscle in on this territory.