Meta’s AI Ambition Accelerates: Blackwell & Rubin Clusters Signal Computing Power Surge
Meta just threw more fuel on the AI arms race fire. The social media behemoth is dramatically expanding its artificial intelligence infrastructure, deploying next-generation clusters built on Nvidia's Blackwell architecture and its own custom Rubin chips. This isn't just an upgrade—it's a statement of intent.
The Hardware Gambit
Forget incremental steps. Meta's move to Blackwell represents a full-throttle commitment to securing the raw computational horsepower needed for frontier AI models. Pairing it with in-house Rubin processors? That's a classic play for cost efficiency and supply chain control, cutting reliance on external vendors. They're building the engine and the fuel injectors.
Why This Compute Push Matters
AI doesn't run on hopes and dreams—it runs on silicon and electricity. More clusters mean more capacity to train larger, more complex models. For users, this could translate to smarter assistants, more immersive metaverse interactions, and hyper-targeted advertising that knows you a little too well. For competitors, it's a warning shot across the bow.
The Bottom Line
Meta is betting billions that owning the AI stack—from chips to clusters to end-user apps—is the only path to dominance. It's a capital-intensive gamble that would make any traditional CFO wince, but in the land of tech giants, strategic moats are dug with data centers, not dollars. One cynical finance take? They're spending like a crypto bull market is forever, but at least they're building tangible assets instead of another meme coin.
Watch this space. As these clusters come online, they'll power Meta's next leap—or reveal just how expensive the race for AI supremacy truly is.
Meta expands AI clusters with Blackwell and Rubin
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said, “No one deploys AI at Meta’s scale — integrating frontier research with industrial-scale infrastructure to power the world’s largest personalization and recommendation systems for billions of users.”
Jensen also said, “Through deep codesign across CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, we are bringing the full NVIDIA platform to Meta’s researchers and engineers as they build the foundation for the next AI frontier.”
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, said, “We’re excited to expand our partnership with NVIDIA to build leading-edge clusters using their Vera Rubin platform to deliver personal superintelligence to everyone in the world.”
Meta will deploy industry-leading GB300-based systems as part of this rollout. The company plans to build one unified architecture that connects its on-premises data centers with Nvidia Cloud Partner deployments. The goal is to keep operations simple while scaling performance across regions.
Meta has adopted the Nvidia Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform across its infrastructure footprint. The networking system is designed for AI-scale traffic. It is built to deliver predictable, low-latency performance while maximizing hardware use and improving power efficiency.
Meta rolls out Grace and Vera CPUs while Nvidia exits Arm
Meta and Nvidia are continuing their work on Arm-based Grace CPUs inside Meta’s production data centers. The Grace chips are designed to improve performance per watt.
This collaboration represents the first large-scale Grace-only deployment. The companies invested in codesign and software optimization across CPU ecosystem libraries to improve efficiency with each generation.
The two companies are also working on deploying Vera CPUs. Large-scale deployment could begin in 2027. Vera is expected to extend Meta’s energy-efficient AI compute footprint and support the broader Arm software ecosystem.
Separately, Nvidia has sold the remainder of its stake in Arm, unloading 1.1 million shares valued at about $140 million based on Arm’s closing price Tuesday. The sale took place in the fourth quarter of last year and reduces Nvidia’s stake in Arm to zero.
The sale ends a long chapter. In 2020, Nvidia agreed to buy Arm for $40 billion. The deal faced opposition from regulators and industry players soon after it was announced. Arm’s chip technology supports most advanced semiconductors worldwide, and its independence was viewed as critical. In February 2022, both sides terminated the agreement.
Arm, majority-owned by SoftBank, later moved forward with plans to sell shares to the public.
SoftBank dumped its entire Nvidia stake in October. The sale was quiet but huge. It unloaded about $5.8 billion worth of shares. The goal was simple. Free up cash and double down on OpenAI. Clean break. No leftovers.
Since that disclosure, Nvidia has slipped around 7%. Now it heads into its February 26 earnings report with analysts still projecting revenue growth of 67%.
Masayoshi Son does not hedge. He goes all in. Then he goes all in again on something else. Each new bet usually requires selling the last one. He thinks in bold swings, not small trims. And the numbers he deals with rarely look normal. They look unreal.
This is the second time he has fully exited Nvidia. The first time was in 2019. That exit turned into one of those stories people bring up when they talk about regret. SoftBank had bought a 4.9% stake in the chipmaker in 2017 for roughly $4 billion. The position later generated about $3 billion in profit. Then crypto mining collapsed. Nvidia shares fell about 50%. SoftBank sold. At the time, it looked rational.
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