Meta To Manufacture Iris AI Chip From September
Custom silicon, built with Broadcom and TSMC, forms part of Meta's plan to double compute capacity to 14GW
Meta Platforms will start its own production of an artificial intelligence chip, codenamed Iris, in September 2026, joining its effort to decrease reliance on external chip manufacturers and nearly double the overall computing power.
The Chip Itself
Meta is set to begin producing the AI chip starting in September as part of an effort to increase the company's computing power to 14 gigawatts for the year, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
A project that Meta will design in-house, dubbed "Iris", to bolster the AI that powers Facebook and Instagram, is a four-generation effort to build the chip. This is a comprehensive guide to compliance with the FEMA standards (ODI) for a 2026 installation.
Testing has been done quite quickly. The 'Iris' chip underwent vital testing without significant problems in six weeks as compared to the industry standard of several months for similar chips.
The memo admitted that conflict with third party hardware has been an issue in the past, and that the newer generations of GPUs have been a tough burden to carry, costing them time.
Scaling Compute rather Replacing Nvidia
Iris is not intended to replace external suppliers per se. Iris is co-developed by Broadcom and will be reportedly made by TSMC. The chip won't be replacing NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, but it will complement them.
The surrounding infrastructure is rather extensive. By 2026, Meta plans to deploy 7 gigawatts of compute, and double that to 14 gigawatts next year, with 1 gigawatt in the first half of 2026 and an expected additional 5.5 gigawatts by year's end.
The Financial Scale
The amount of money that is being spent is massive, in any corporate sense. Total CapEx for the year is expected to be $125-$145 billion, with the majority focused on AI infrastructure. Meta has entered into long-term deals with Samsung Electronics to buy memory chips, Sandisk for flash storage, and Sumitomo Electric for fiber-optic hardware in support of this growth.
Market Reaction and Wider Implications
The news took a cold reception from investors. Meta has dipped over 1.5% in pre-market trading following the news. But the move comes as a symbolic reminder for the broader AI industry: If Iris is delivered as promised, the debate around AI economics in 2027 might focus more on silicon supply chain ownership than who controls the GPUs, which is what is happening at Google and OpenAI, both of which have been courting Broadcom to create their own silicon supply chains.