Meta's Custom AI Chips Could Save It $8.5 Billion, Analyst Says

Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) kept its Buy rating at BofA Securities in a research note on Wednesday, with the firm maintaining an $810 price forecast against a closing price of $673.31 that day, implying 20.3% upside. The analysts said Meta’s artificial intelligence plans are advancing on two fronts at once: the chips that run its AI systems and the products that charge users for them. BofA identified five potential catalysts for the stock earlier this year and said three have now been announced. Custom Chips Could Cut Infrastructure Costs Citing a Bloomberg report, BofA said Meta plans to deploy third-generation MTIA 450 chips, known as Arke, in the first half of 2027, followed by the higher-performance MTIA 500, or Astrid, from late 2027. The chips are developed with Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) and built for AI inference — the stage where a trained model answers user requests. Meta expects to deploy more than one gigawatt of custom-chip capacity over 12 months, which BofA estimates costs upward of $8 billion. The Math Behind The Savings Estimate BofA modeled Meta deploying 5-6 gigawatts of owned capacity in 2027 at a cost of $200 billion, with chips making up 60% of that. At a 40% saving versus third-party chips, the firm calculated roughly $8.5 billion in savings. The analysts called custom silicon “strategically important” to Meta’s AI roadmap, pointing to Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) results with its own processors. Bloomberg also reported Meta canceled a combined training-and-inference chip after concluding the design could cost about 30% more. Meta One Subscription Adds A Revenue Line Meta launched Meta One globally with more than 50 features, bundling higher AI usage limits, customization and creator tools. Consumer plans range from $2.99 per month for individual apps to $19.99 for a premium bundle; creator and business tiers range from $14.99 to $499. Meta said existing subscription offerings have drawn 15 million subscribers and trials. What Each Percentage Point Is Worth BofA called that figure a constructive early demand signal and used Snapchat Plus penetration of about 5.5% of daily users as a benchmark. Assuming global average revenue per user of roughly $10 a month, each 1% conversion — about 36 million users — could add approximately $4.3 billion in annual revenue, or 1.2% above consensus 2028 estimates. Remaining Catalysts Two catalysts remain: the Connect conference and the Watermelon model launch. BofA does not expect significant AI news at Connect but said a frontier-level Watermelon language model could support expectations for advertising system improvements and API licensing fees. The $810 price forecast is based on 24 times 2027 estimated GAAP earnings per share. Listed risks include advertising revenue’s sensitivity to the economy, AI spending pressure on margins, reduced cost flexibility from a larger fixed-asset base and competition for users and ad budgets. META Stock Price Activity: Meta Platforms shares are trading higher by 0.31% at $675.37 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Image via Shutterstock