by Intel (INTC) unveiled a pair of artificial intelligence chips on Tuesday as it looks to improve its data center business and steal market share from rivals AMD (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA). The new chips, the to be.
The announcement follows a report from the Wall Street Journal that Qualcomm (QCOM) is exploring a possible acquisition of Intel to strengthen its own chip business. Bloomberg, meanwhile, reported that Apollo Global Management is interested in a multibillion-dollar investment in the chipmaker that would support Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s massive turnaround plan. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management.)
Intel says the new Xeon 6 chip offers P-cores, or performance cores, and says it is twice as powerful as its predecessor. According to the company, the chip is built for AI and high-performance computing scenarios, including edge and cloud systems.
The Gaudi 3 processor, on the other hand, is purpose-built for generative AI applications and will compete directly with Nvidia’s H100 and AMD’s MI300X chip range. Intel says IBM (IBM) is using its Gaudi 3 accelerators as part of its IBM Cloud with the goal of providing a lower total cost of ownership.
“The demand for AI is driving a massive transformation in the data center, and the industry is demanding choice in hardware, software and developer tools,” said Justin Hotard, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Data Center Artificial Intelligence Group. said in a statement.
“With our launch of Xeon 6 with P-cores and Gaudi 3 AI accelerators, Intel is enabling an open ecosystem that allows our customers to deploy all their workloads with better performance, efficiency and security.”
Intel was also quick to point out that 73% of GPU-accelerated servers, servers designed to power AI applications, use Xeon chips as the host CPUs they need to function properly. But Intel’s chips aren’t the hot tickets they once were. Companies are instead trying to get their hands on Nvidia’s AI chips, sending that company’s stock price soaring.
Nvidia’s stock price is up as much as 142% year to date, while Intel shares are down as much as 52%. AMD shares are up 12% over the same period.
During its last quarterly results in August, Intel reported worse-than-expected revenue and earnings per share and gave a disappointing outlook for the current quarter. The company also said it would lay off 15% of its workforce and suspend dividend payments.
