Intel drops $2 billion on AI chip maker Habana Labs

Having once more failed at mobile, US chip giant Intel is doubling down on the datacenter, where artificial intelligence is expected to be ever more prominent.

Spending two billion bucks on AI chip maker Habana Labs is a major statement of intent in this regard. The Israel-based company specialises in programmable deep learning accelerators for the datacenter. Intel already has a strong position in general purpose processors used in that environment, but is under pressure when it comes to AI from rivals such as Nvidia.

“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 Navin Shenoy, GM of the Data Platforms Group at Intel. “More specifically, Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the datacenter with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI workloads.

“We know that customers are looking for ease of programmability with purpose-built AI solutions, as well as superior, scalable performance on a wide variety of workloads and neural network topologies. That’s why we’re thrilled to have an AI team of Habana’s caliber with a proven track record of execution joining Intel. Our combined IP and expertise will deliver unmatched computing performance and efficiency for AI workloads in the data center.”

Habana will remain semi-autonomous with Chairman Avigdor Willenz (pictured) hanging around for a while. Intel says its AI-driven datacenter business is growing 20% annually and will bring in $3.5 billion this year. With datacenters becoming an evermore important component of telecoms networks, this looks like Intel’s best remaining hope of capitalising on an industry that has eluded it for so long.