San Francisco, April 24, 2026, 13:02 (PDT)
Meta Platforms Inc landed a multiyear agreement to tap Amazon Web Services’ Graviton5 CPUs, handing Amazon a major win in the custom-chip space and supplying Meta with fresh horsepower for its AI expansion. According to an AWS executive speaking to Reuters, the deal is valued in the billions and will span “tens of millions of cores.” Reuters
The timing’s key here. Meta projects its 2026 capital expenditures will hit $115 billion to $135 billion, a big jump from $72.22 billion for 2025, as investments pour into Meta Superintelligence Labs and its main business.
The deal arrives as AI’s economic focus moves away from model training and toward operating AI services at scale. According to Meta, its AWS rollout begins with tens of millions of Graviton cores and will back “agentic AI” — systems that reason, plan, and execute complex tasks with minimal human intervention. About Facebook
Amazon vice president and distinguished engineer Nafea Bshara described the agreement as “not just about chips.” For Meta, diversifying its compute options is now a “strategic imperative,” according to Santosh Janardhan, who oversees infrastructure there, as the company pushes AI to a larger scale. Amazon News
Meta isn’t ditching the graphics chips that fueled early generative AI progress. Nvidia GPUs still sit at the core of its large model training, and Meta continues to ink chip agreements with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices. The company is also collaborating with Arm Holdings on silicon for its data centers.
Costs are shifting, too. Meta is slashing about 10% of its staff—some 8,000 jobs—while also closing 6,000 open positions, all according to a memo from Chief People Officer Janelle Gale that the company confirmed to CNN. The layoffs kick in May 20. Gale said the move aims to make Meta “more efficiently” run. ABC7 San Francisco
Meta stock tacked on $16.87 to reach $676.02 late in the U.S. session. Amazon advanced $8.87 to $263.95, market data showed.
Minda Smiley, senior analyst at eMarketer, described Meta as facing a “crossroads moment” in comments to the Los Angeles Times—despite solid business performance. That’s the push and pull for the stock: robust ad revenue, sharp AI investment, layoffs, and mounting regulatory scrutiny stacking up all at once. Los Angeles Times
Still, the agreement leaves the larger issue of returns unresolved. S&P Global, referencing Visible Alpha consensus, projects Meta’s Q1 revenue at $55.5 billion, with operating profit pegged at $19.4 billion. Reality Labs—Meta’s VR and AR division—is seen posting roughly $5 billion in losses. As for capital spending, forecasts for 2026 run close to $125 billion, according to the same S&P Global preview.
The next official look at Meta’s spending blueprint lands after the bell on April 29, when the company posts its first-quarter results. A conference call follows at 2:30 p.m. Pacific.
Amazon gets a boost for AWS: landing this order shows its homegrown chips aren’t just a bargain-bin option—they can handle heavy-duty AI work. As for Meta, the deal means another supplier in the mix as Mark Zuckerberg pushes for more AI muscle, all while trying to prevent infrastructure expenses from overtaking the pace of growth.
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