AMD says Helios systems are under test at Meta, commits $1 billion

AMD said initial Helios rack-scale systems have been installed and are being tested by Meta. The chipmaker also committed to invest $1 billion in Meta’s equity offering. AMD did not say how many Helios systems are installed, where they are being tested or when testing began.

The update adds testing detail to AMD’s earlier Helios deployment status, but it does not establish broad production. AMD said wider deployment is expected in the near future and identified anticipated partnership benefits and broader deployment as forward-looking statements. Neither company’s announcement establishes that the up-to-6-gigawatt rollout is complete.

Helios is AMD’s rack-scale AI system, combining computing hardware, networking and software in an integrated design. AMD said the expanded partnership covers EPYC server processors, Instinct accelerators, Pensando networking and ROCm software, along with Helios systems. The company also said Meta has deployed millions of EPYC processors across several generations and currently uses Instinct GPUs in production for training, ranking and recommendation workloads.

According to AMD, the companies are also working on future hardware and software. Those projects include Verano, a future EPYC processor; a custom Instinct GPU optimized for Meta workloads; future MI500-series and rack-scale platforms; and software for large-scale AI training.

The October update builds on a multi-year agreement Meta announced in February. At that time, Meta said the agreement covered up to 6 gigawatts of AMD Instinct GPUs and that shipments for the first deployments would begin in the second half of 2026 using the Helios architecture. That 6-gigawatt figure describes the agreement’s potential scale, not completed capacity.

AMD said it will invest $1 billion in Meta’s equity offering. Its announcement did not identify which security it intends to buy or say that a purchase had closed. Meta priced two concurrent offerings: 250 million depositary shares at $50 each, or $12.5 billion before any over-allotment, and a $25 billion Class A common-stock offering tied to forward sale agreements. Meta said both offerings were expected to close October 29, subject to closing conditions.