The tech giant Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Tuesday its intention to acquire the California-based start-up Rivos, specialized in developing chips built on the RISC-V architecture, as part of its strategy to strengthen semiconductor design for artificial intelligence. The company did not disclose financial details of the deal, although experts estimated

Rivos’ valuation at around $2 billion ahead of a new funding round. Rivos, headquartered in Santa Clara and backed by former Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, has gained recognition for designing open-source chips as an alternative to the proprietary architectures of Arm, Intel, and AMD. Its expertise extends beyond hardware, encompassing the development of complete AI systems, a capability Meta intends to leverage to accelerate the growth of its internal chip family known as MTIA (Meta Training and Inference Accelerator).

“Our work on in-house chips is progressing rapidly, and this acquisition will further accelerate our efforts,” Meta emphasized in a statement. Meanwhile, Meta’s Vice President of Technology, Yee Jiun Song, wrote on LinkedIn that bringing Rivos on board will strengthen Meta’s infrastructure capabilities for artificial intelligence.

At present, Meta relies heavily on the high-priced AI chips produced by Nvidia, the undisputed market leader. With this acquisition, the company aims to reduce that dependency, lower infrastructure costs, and gain greater control over the design of its semiconductors. It is worth noting that Meta was already one of Rivos’ largest clients, which will facilitate strategic integration between the two companies.