Arista and Meta partner to build and deploy AI at scale

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has partnered with Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) to deploy its latest Ethernet-based artificial intelligence cluster.

Meta used the Arista 7700R4 Distributed Etherlink Switch to build a multi-tier network that scales up and addresses the demand needs of running large language models and other AI applications, Arista announced in a blog post today.

Arista shares fell 5% by the time markets closed on Tuesday.

“Arista’s blog comes as shares of ANET have seemingly come under some pressure today following Meta’s Minipack 51.2T switch announcement – we think any concerns are misplaced,” said Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers.

Wells Fargo rates Arista at Overweight with a $390 price target.

“The Arista 7800R4 is a high performance multi-chip system that scales to over 1,000 400G ports and is the backbone of many large-scale data center networks,” Arista said.

“Distributed Ethernet Switch is topology agnostic, UEC ready, optimized for both training and inference workloads, with a 100% efficient architecture, and offers the rich telemetry and smart features that the modern AI Center needs,” the company added.

“By breaking down traditional data center technologies into their core components, we can build new systems that are more flexible, scalable, and efficient,” Meta said.

In addition to working with Arista, Meta is also building data centers with Cisco’s (CSCO) 8501 and Broadcom’s (AVGO) Tomahawk5 ASIC.

“Advancing AI means building data center infrastructure that goes beyond scale,” Meta added. “It also has to allow for flexibility and perform efficiently and sustainably.”