Intel Launches Gaudi2, AI Chip That Claims To Shift NVIDIA's CUDA Dominance

Sandra Rivera, head of data center and AI at Intel, said the AI chip market is expected to grow at around 25% per year. (photo: twitter @intel)

JAKARTA - Intel Corp on Tuesday, May 10 launched a new chip called Gaudi2 which focuses on artificial intelligence computing. This is because the chipmaker is now making a bigger push into the AI chip market in a world currently dominated by Nvidia Corp.

Gaudi2 is a second-generation processor by Habana Labs, an Israeli AI chip startup that Intel bought in late 2019 for around $2 billion. The AI chip startup has received heavy investment in recent years as AI computing is one of the fastest-growing areas for data centers.

Shifting market share away from Nvidia has been a challenge as many researchers and AI companies have become accustomed to using Nvidia's CUDA software platform. So in addition to the new chips for AI computing, Intel told Reuters it had focused on developing its software.

“CUDA is not a niche where Nvidia can really stay long in its market,” said Eitan Medina, the chief business officer at Habana Labs. He added that Intel's software platform is an open standard, even free to download and use from GitHub, the software development site. “Now the question is who can do the job efficiently?” said Median as quoted by Reuters.

Medina said the Gaudi2 is twice as fast as the previous Habana AI chip and is manufactured on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) 7-nanometer transistor technology instead of the previous 16-nanometer. Generally, the smaller the transistor size, the faster and more powerful the chip.

Intel is also launching a new chip called Greco for inference work that takes AI algorithms and makes predictions or identifies objects.

Sandra Rivera, who heads Intel's AI and data center, said the AI chip market is expected to grow at around 25% per year over the next five years to reach around $50 billion. "We intend to invest and innovate to lead this market," he said, adding that investment will be increasingly in software, both to expand the Intel team and buy other companies.