Meta Platforms (META +3.78%) stock saw substantial gains in Tuesday's trading following news of a potentially disruptive artificial intelligence supplier deal. The company's share price rose 3.8% in the daily session.
Meta stock gained ground today following a report that the company was on track to purchase artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Alphabet. The move could mark a significant shakeup in the AI hardware space.
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Meta could be spearheading a major move in the AI processor space
The Information published a report yesterday stating that Meta Platforms is on track to purchase tensor processing units (TPUs) from Alphabet. If so, it could signal some major shifts in the AI processor market. Meta and Alphabet are major competitors when it comes to AI, content, and digital advertising markets, and reports that the two companies could enter into a partnership on AI processors have some significant implications for the broader tech-hardware market.
According to The Information's report, Meta is on track to make a multi-billion-dollar order for Alphabet's TPUs. Nvidia's graphic processing units (GPUs) have been the most important semiconductor hardware when it comes to powering the training and execution of AI applications, but leading cloud computing giants have some big incentives to diversify their processing stacks.
NASDAQ: META
Key Data Points
Meta Platforms is one of Nvidia's largest customers. According to some reports, the social-media giant is the AI hardware leader's second-largest purchaser – trailing behind only Microsoft. Given its heavy reliance on Nvidia's processors, Meta has some big incentives to diversify its processing hardware. Meta has been developing its owner processors, but the rumored purchase of Alphabet's TPUs suggests that its rival's tech currently offers better performance.
Meta's potential purchase of new processors could signal a shift in AI's balance of power
Meta will likely continue to be a major purchaser of Nvidia's GPUs, but it also has major reasons to diversify its hardware foundations in the AI space. If Meta really is poised to make major purchases of Alphabet's TPUs, that suggests that it can derive more cost-effective performance from the hardware for some applications compared to Nvidia's high-end processors.
Meta's potential move to diversifying its AI-processing tech stack could also soften Nvidia's pricing power. Nvidia has been able to command stellar premiums when it comes to top-of-the-line AI processors, and increased competition in the category could weaken the company's stranglehold and pricing premiums. If Meta is really betting big on new AI processing alternatives, it looks like a favorable development for the company.
