Intel Acquires AI Chip Startup Habana Labs For $2 Billion

In a clear signal of its ambitions for the estimated $91.18 billion AI chip market, Intel this morning announced that it has acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable AI and machine learning accelerators for cloud data centers. From a report: The deal is worth approximately $2 billion, and Intel says it'll strengthen its AI strategy as Habana begins to sample its proprietary silicon to customers. Habana -- which previously raised $75 million in venture capital last November -- will remain an independent business unit and will continue to be led by its current management team, and it'll report to Intel's data platforms group. Chairman Avigdor Willenz will serve as senior adviser to the business unit as well as to Intel.

"This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need -- from the intelligent edge to the data center," said executive vice president and general manager of the data platforms group at Intel Navin Shenoy. "More specifically, Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the data center with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI [compute requirements]." Habana offers two silicon products targeting workloads in AI and machine learning: the Gaudi AI Training Processor and the Goya AI Inference Processor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.