Meta signs multi-billion-dollar deal to rent Google AI chips (TPUs)

Reuters reported in December that Google was pushing to make its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) a viable alternative to Nvidia's market-leading GPUs. TPU sales have become a crucial growth engine of Google's cloud revenue as it seeks to prove to investors that its AI investments are generating returns.

The Information reported Thursday that Meta is also in talks with Google to buy the TPUs for its data centers as early as next year, though the status of those discussions could not be determined.

Google has also signed an agreement with an unidentified large investment firm to fund a joint venture that would lease TPUs to other customers, the report added.