Facebook is building its own AI chips

It looks like more and more of the tech giants are making their own chips. The latest company that's forming its own team to design computer chips is Facebook. A job listing reveals Facebook is looking for a manager to oversee a project that involves “end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization.” Bloomberg did some digging and heard Facebook is setting up a whole chip development team.

Facebook could use such chips to power hardware devices, artificial intelligence software and servers in its data centers. Next month, the company will launch the Oculus Go, a $200 standalone virtual-reality headset that runs on a Qualcomm processor. Facebook is also working on a slew of smart speakers. Future generations of those devices could be improved by custom chipsets. By using its own processors, the company would have finer control over product development and would be able to better tune its software and hardware together.

A tweet from Facebook's Yann LeCun reveals the FPGA/ASIC chips will be used for artificial intelligence:

Interested in designing ASIC & FPGA for AI?
Design engineer positions are available at Facebook in Menlo Park.

I used to be a chip designer many moons ago: my engineering diploma was in Electrical... https://t.co/D4l9kLpIlV

— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) April 18, 2018

The list of other tech giants working on their own chips includes Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Tesla. By making custom chips, these firms can better focus on their own needs and/or give end-users a more unique experience.