Meta Reportedly Plans $6.5B AI Chip Order from Samsung
N.R. Finch
Meta is in advanced negotiations with Samsung Foundry over a $6.5 billion contract to mass-produce its third-generation custom AI accelerator, MTIA. This means → TSMC's exclusive hold on Meta's AI chips could end, as Silicon Valley's compute supply chain tilts toward diversification.
How big is this deal?
The contract is valued at roughly 10 trillion Korean won (≈$6.54 billion), covering mass production of Meta's third-generation AI training and inference accelerator, MTIA.
MTIA is an ASIC chip — hardware designed for one specific type of task, less versatile than a GPU but faster and more power-efficient for that task.
This means → Meta is not running a small trial with Samsung. It is putting an entire generation of core AI silicon on the negotiating table.
Wasn't this partnership shelved?
On June 4 this year, Korean media reported that Meta had asked Samsung's System LSI division to pause their custom-chip development project. Around the same time, OpenAI's chip collaboration with Samsung also reportedly cooled.
Yet the latest reports show the early pause did not kill the deal. Instead, it evolved into a $6.5 billion-class mass-production contract negotiation.
In plain terms = the "pause" looks more like a mid-negotiation technical reset than a breakup — both sides ended up raising the stakes.
What does TSMC stand to lose?
Meta's first two generations of MTIA chips were both exclusively manufactured by TSMC.
If the contract lands, TSMC will lose its exclusive position on Meta's AI chips for the first time, with Samsung cutting into the order book.
This reflects a broader pattern: Silicon Valley's AI giants are systematically spreading supply-chain risk, refusing to stake all their chips on a single foundry.
Who else is looking for alternatives to TSMC?
AI company Anthropic is in talks with Samsung to produce its custom chips on Samsung's 2-nanometer process.
OpenAI has teamed up with chip-design firm Broadcom to develop custom silicon, also seeking options beyond TSMC.
This means → from training to inference, from Meta to Anthropic to OpenAI, the entire AI compute supply chain is shifting from TSMC dominance toward a multi-player contest. Whether Meta and Samsung finalize this contract will be a key test of that structural shift.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.