Meta's self-developed AI chip "Iris" will officially go into production in September, and its computing power will double to 14 gigawatts next year
Meta plans to start production of its self-developed AI chip "Iris" in September, with computing power expected to double to 14 gigawatts next year. The chip is jointly designed by Meta and Broadcom, and manufactured by TSMC, aiming to complement NVIDIA GPUs and reduce procurement costs. Following the announcement, Meta's stock price fell 3.5% in pre-market trading
According to reports, Meta Platforms (META.US) plans to begin production of its self-developed artificial intelligence chip (codenamed "Iris") starting this September to further enhance its computing power. Following the announcement, Meta's stock price fell by 3.6%.
An internal memo indicates that the company, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is working to increase its computing power to 14 gigawatts next year, up from about 7 gigawatts this year. Meta is collaborating with Broadcom (AVGO.US) on chip design, with TSMC (TSM.US) responsible for manufacturing. The memo also mentioned that testing of the chip took only about six weeks, with no significant technical issues found.
Iris is a data center AI chip tailored to Meta's own business needs and is part of Meta's self-developed MTIA (Meta Training and Inference Accelerators) fourth-generation project. The chip is designed by Meta, with Broadcom (AVGO) involved in joint design, and TSMC (TSM) handling the manufacturing.
The MTIA chip was first launched in 2023, and the company previously stated it would develop at least four generations of products. Iris was officially released in March this year, and Meta plans to launch a new model approximately every six months thereafter.
The positioning of Iris is not to completely replace GPUs but to supplement the AI GPUs that Meta procures in large quantities from NVIDIA and AMD, jointly handling AI training and inference tasks. Meta hopes to reduce the substantial costs of AI computing power through self-developed custom chips while decreasing reliance on external chip suppliers like NVIDIA and AMD. The internal memo explicitly stated that for a company of Meta's size, "deploying the latest generation of GPUs is extremely challenging and consumes a lot of time."
Meta has been working on self-developed AI chips for over five years, but the MTIA project has faced difficulties in its advancement, with multiple route adjustments and at one point being seen as a typical case of slow progress in chip development by large internet companies.
A turning point occurred in March this year when Meta publicly announced Iris and three other AI processors for the first time. The information disclosed in this internal memo is even more critical: the Iris chip completed defect testing in just six weeks, with no significant issues found. For data center-level AI chips, validation after tape-out typically takes months, and any major bugs could lead to redesign or even re-tape-out. Completing testing in six weeks indicates that Meta's chip development system is gradually maturing, clearing key obstacles for mass production in September.
So far, Meta has primarily relied on external suppliers like NVIDIA (NVDA.US) and AMD (AMD.US) for computing power.
The memo also pointed out that Meta has signed a long-term supply agreement for memory chips with Samsung (SSNLF), reached a flash memory procurement agreement with SanDisk (SNDK.US), and established cooperation with Sumitomo Electric for fiber optic needs.
It is worth mentioning that on the same day, Meta announced it would invest approximately $10 billion to build its first data center in Canada to expand its infrastructure, thereby supporting its ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence The data center is located in Sturgeon County, Alberta, and will have a power capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW) — equivalent to the electricity consumption of approximately 750,000 households — and will primarily rely on natural gas for power generation. Meta stated that the company is funding this new power generation facility, which will connect to Alberta's power grid.
In a statement on Wednesday, Meta mentioned that the facility will require 3,000 construction workers during its construction phase and will create 300 full-time jobs once completed. According to Gary DeMarco, Vice President of Data Center Development and Strategy at Meta, this data center will become Meta's largest data center outside the United States
