In a bid to revitalize its data center business and chip away at the dominance of rivals AMD and Nvidia, Intel has unveiled two cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips. The Xeon 6 CPU and Gaudi 3 AI accelerator promise significant improvements in performance and power efficiency, marking a crucial step forward for the company as it seeks to establish itself as a major player in the AI space.
The new chips come at a time when Intel is facing increased scrutiny, with reports emerging that Qualcomm is considering a potential takeover of the company to bolster its own chip business. Meanwhile, Apollo Global Management is reportedly interested in making a multibillion-dollar investment in Intel to support CEO Pat Gelsinger’s ambitious turnaround plan.
The Xeon 6 chip boasts P-cores, or performance cores, and offers twice the performance of its predecessor, making it an attractive option for AI and high-performance compute scenarios, including edge and cloud systems. The Gaudi 3 processor, on the other hand, is specifically designed for generative AI applications, putting it in direct competition with Nvidia’s H100 and AMD’s MI300X line of chips.
Intel has secured a major win with IBM, which is using the Gaudi 3 accelerators as part of its IBM Cloud, with the goal of offering a lower overall total cost of ownership. According to Justin Hotard, Intel’s executive vice president and general manager of its Data Center Artificial Intelligence Group, “Demand for AI is driving a massive transformation in the data center, and the industry is asking for choice in hardware, software, and developer tools.”
Despite its efforts, Intel faces stiff competition from Nvidia, whose stock price has soared 142% year to date, while Intel shares have plummeted 52%. AMD shares, meanwhile, have risen 12% in the same period. As Intel struggles to regain its footing, CEO Pat Gelsinger is pushing the company to build more advanced chips for the data center and consumer PCs, while also expanding its manufacturing capabilities.
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