Meta Expands AI Team in with Experienced Engineers Formerly from IPU Chip Company Graphcore
In Brief
Meta has hired a number of engineers specializing in AI networking chips formerly from British chip company, Graphcore.
Reuters identified 10 people who left Graphcore in December 2022 or January 2023 and joined Meta in February or March.
The new hires will support Meta’s AI and machine learning efforts in the company’s data centers.
Meta has hired an experienced team of Oslo-based engineers who were working on building AI networking technology at British chip company Graphcore, per a Reuters report.
Reuters found 10 people on LinkedIn who had left Graphcore in December 2022 or January 2023 and joined Meta in February or March. According to Reuters, their LinkedIn job descriptions said that they had been working on AI networking technology at Graphcore.
Jon Carvill, a Meta spokesperson, confirmed the new hires to Reuters, saying that the company recently “welcomed a number of highly-specialized engineers in Oslo” to its infrastructure team. With their deep expertise in the design and development of supercomputing systems, the newly hired engineers will support Meta’s AI and machine learning efforts in the company’s data centers.
The new hires joined Meta after Graphcore closed its Oslo office in a company restructuring announced last October as the company struggled to compete with Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Graphcore reached unicorn status in 2018 with a valuation of $1.7 billion following a $200 million Series D funding round, with participation from BMW and Microsoft. In 2020, the company raised another $222 million at a valuation of $2.77 billion but faced a setback when Microsoft opted for Nvidia’s GPUs over Graphcore’s chip to build Azure’s cloud computing infrastructure.
Meta is now focusing on and investing heavily in AI to catch up to other tech giants in their advancements in the field. Internally, Meta is seeing demand for AI infrastructure from teams across the company. The social media giant has also been relying on AI technology for targeted advertising and to remove banned content from its platforms.
While Carvill did not disclose what the engineers are working on, two sources told Reuters that Meta has an in-house unit designing various chips that optimize efficiency for AI work, including a network chip. Network chips transmit and receive data over a network and are produced by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel.
On top of that, Meta is making a computing chip that can train AI models as well as make judgments and generate responses, although it won’t be ready until 2025.
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About The Author
Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via cindy@mpost.io with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
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Cindy is a journalist at Metaverse Post, covering topics related to web3, NFT, metaverse and AI, with a focus on interviews with Web3 industry players. She has spoken to over 30 C-level execs and counting, bringing their valuable insights to readers. Originally from Singapore, Cindy is now based in Tbilisi, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Studies from the University of South Australia and has a decade of experience in journalism and writing. Get in touch with her via cindy@mpost.io with press pitches, announcements and interview opportunities.
