Alphabet stock jumps over 2% in after-hours trading while Nvidia fell nearly 2% on a report that Meta Platforms Inc. is in talks to spend billions on Google’s AI chips, suggesting the internet search leader is making headway in efforts to rival the industry’s bestselling AI accelerator.
Meta is in discussions to use the Google chips — known as tensor processing units, or TPUs — in data centers in 2027, The Information reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the talks. Meta also may rent chips from Google’s cloud division next year, the news outlet said.
An agreement would help establish TPUs as an alternative to Nvidia’s chips, the gold standard for big tech firms and startups from Meta to OpenAI that need computing power to develop and run artificial intelligence platforms.
Google previously sealed a deal to supply up to 1 million of its chips to Anthropic PBC, drawing attention to the potential for long-term challenges to Nvidia’s dominant market position.
After the Anthropic deal was announced, Seaport analyst Jay Goldberg called it a “really powerful validation” for TPUs. “A lot of people were already thinking about it, and a lot more people are probably thinking about it now,” he said.
