Meta and Google could be about to sign a mega AI chip deal - and it could change everything in the tech space (www.techradar.com)

Meta is reportedly in advanced talks to rent Google Cloud’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in 2026 with plans to start buying them in 2027—a notable shift since Google has historically kept TPUs for internal use and Meta has relied on a heterogeneous mix of CPUs and GPUs. The move would mark a major cloud-to-cloud hardware partnership and has already shaken markets: Alphabet and Meta shares rose while Nvidia dipped on investor concerns about potential long‑term shifts in data‑center spend. Google executives say a deal of this scale could let Google capture a meaningful slice of Nvidia’s massive data‑center revenue (Nvidia’s data‑center sales exceeded $50B in a single recent quarter). Technically and strategically, the talks underline two trends: hyperscalers diversifying beyond GPUs (Meta is also exploring RISC‑V CPUs from Rivos) and fierce competition for limited fabrication, GPU and memory capacity. Even with contracts in place, supply‑chain constraints, rising component prices, and rapid product cycles—Google’s annual TPU updates and Nvidia’s relentless iterations—mean performance and relevance could change before large shipments arrive. The pact could recalibrate architecture choices and procurement strategies across the AI ecosystem, but its ultimate impact depends on production scale, comparative performance vs. GPUs, and how quickly workloads evolve.