Intel has issued a statement this morning stating that it has picked up the Israeli AI chip maker Habana Labs. The deal, valued at around $ 2 billion, is the latest piece of some hefty investments in artificial intelligence that include names such as Nervana and Movidius Systems.
In July, Habana announced its Gaudi AI training processor, which promised Tel Aviv startup was able to beat GPU-based systems by 4x. The company has been rumored to be a target for an Intel acquisition for a while now, as Intel is looking to leave for the AI market. The company clearly does not want to repeat past mistakes, such as missing the boat on the mobile phone.
So far, the strategy looks like it is just worth it, giving Intel a clear advantage in a category that the company will be worth around $ 24 billion by 2024. In 2019 alone, Intel expects the company to generate more than $ 3.5 billion in “AI-driven revenue “, an increase of 20% over the year before.
“This acquisition promotes our AI strategy, which is to offer customers solutions that meet every performance requirement – from the intelligent edge to the data center,” said Intel EVP Navin Shenoy in a news-bound release. In particular, Habana turbocharges our AI data center offering with a powerful family of training processors and a standards-based programming environment to address the evolving AI workloads.
For the time being, Intel Habana expects to operate as an independent business unit, with the current management team on board, with activities that are still mainly located in Israel. Habana chairman Avigdor Willenz will continue to advise the companies.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/16/intel-buys-ai-chipmaker-habana-for-2-billion/
Tags: #ArtificialIntelligence, #latestNewsAI, #researchAi, #Robotics, AI