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A Meta logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Sept 30 (Reuters) - Meta
(META.O), opens new tabis acquiring the chip startup Rivos, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday, as the social media company looks to bolster its in-house semiconductor efforts.
The Santa Clara, California-based startup, which is backed by Intel
(INTC.O), opens new tabCEO Lip-Bu Tan, is focused on designing chips based on the RISC-V architecture, an open-source alternative to the architectures made by Arm, Intel and AMD
(AMD.O), opens new tab.
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The terms of the deal were unclear, according to the source. Meta and Rivos did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Meta has been one of Rivos' biggest customers and had been talking to the startup about a deal, a second source familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be named as they were not authorized to discuss the information.
Reuters exclusively reported in March that Meta was testing its first in-house chip for training AI systems as the company seeks to cut infrastructure costs linked to its spending on advanced AI tools.
The Instagram and Facebook owner has spent heavily on sought-after AI chips from Nvidia.
Rivos was seeking new funding at an over $2 billion valuation, The Information reported in August.
Bloomberg News first reported on the potential deal.
Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu in San Francisco and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Jeffrey Dastin is a correspondent for Reuters based in San Francisco, where he reports on the technology industry and artificial intelligence. He joined Reuters in 2014, originally writing about airlines and travel from the New York bureau. Dastin graduated from Yale University with a degree in history. He was part of a team that examined lobbying by Amazon.com around the world, for which he won a SOPA Award in 2022.
Krystal reports on venture capital and startups for Reuters. She covers Silicon Valley and beyond through the lens of money and characters, with a focus on growth-stage startups, tech investments and AI. She has previously covered M&A for Reuters, breaking stories on Trump's SPAC and Elon Musk's Twitter financing. Previously, she reported on Amazon for Yahoo Finance, and her investigation of the company's retail practice was cited by lawmakers in Congress. Krystal started a career in journalism by writing about tech and politics in China. She has a master's degree from New York University, and enjoys a scoop of Matcha ice cream as much as getting a scoop at work.
