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Facebook set to form chip design team focused on AI - but why?
June 09, 2025
Facebook is reportedly building a team devoted to chip design, withAItipped to be a major focus. The news comes viaBloomberg, citing recent job listings and people “familiar with the matter,” and theWall Street Journal.
The job listings reveal that the social network is seeking a manager to create an “end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization.” The term “SoC” refers to a system-on-a-chip, being a processor that integrates many components on one chip, saving space and energy in the process. Meanwhile, “ASIC” refers to an application-specific integrated circuit, being a custom-designed bit of silicon tuned for a specific job as opposed to general computing tasks.
What kind of chips would the network be building though? The company is focusing on AI, according toa tweetfrom Facebook AI Research director Yann LeCun. More specifically, Facebook islooking for someoneable to “use their expertise to build custom solutions targeted at multiple verticals including AI/ML, compression, and video encoding.”
Bloombergsuggests that the network could use these chips for devices, AI software or data servers.
Facebook is reportedly working on asmart speakerlineup, which could no doubt benefit an in-house AI chip, but we’re unlikely to see this in the first range of devices. Despite areported delay, the speakers are said to be well underway and expected to be released this fall. The dedicated AI team, on the other hand, looks like it’s still in its infancy.
The social network is no stranger to AI, having previously delivered the M virtual assistant beforeshutting it downin January 2018. At the time, Facebook said it had “learned a lot” about what people wanted from a virtual assistant, and its smart speaker may be a testament to this.
But a smart speaker might not be Facebook’s only use for AI-infused silicon. Chips tuned for AI and machine learning tasks could also be a boon for the social network at large, being used for video encoding on Facebook itself, identifying bogus profiles and delivering more accurate advertising.
Facebook is just the latest tech company gearing up for its own AI chips, joining the likes ofAppleandHuawei. More recently, we’ve even seen Google deliver the custom-designedPixel Visual Corein thePixel 2, used for imaging and machine learning tasks.
Whether consumers want Facebook in even more corners of their home, while the company is still grappling with theCambridge Audio Analytica scandal, is another matter.
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