Written by Max A. Charney and Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence presents a growing and potentially lucrative opportunity for Intel’s new standalone programmable chip unit, the company’s CEO Sandra Rivera said.
Intel’s programmable chip unit began operating as a standalone business earlier this year, and on Thursday it announced an overview of its future plans and its official name: Altera, an Intel Corporation.
The parent company plans to conduct an offering of Altera’s stock over the next two to three years.
Rivera said programmable chips designed by Altera are ideal for AI applications and computing tasks that fall somewhere between specialized custom processors designed by cloud computing companies such as Amazon.com and general-purpose AI chips manufactured by Nvidia. Said it was helpful.
The hardware needed to power AI is currently in flux, so programmable chips will fill a growing niche, she said.
“(Programmable chips) have always been at the forefront of that innovation cycle, and it’s our job to stay at the forefront,” Rivera said. “This is to help facilitate these transitions.”
Rivera said the market for programmable chips is expected to be around $8 billion to $10 billion in 2023, but it’s unclear how big the opportunity for programmable chips is because good third-party data doesn’t exist.
“I think it’s bigger than people realize,” she said, adding that’s because there are a lot of programmable chips that can help at different stages of the “AI workflow.”
The company’s current Agilex series of programmable chips are produced by Intel Foundry, the company’s contract manufacturing division. Rivera declined to say whether Intel Foundry would make the next Agilex 3 chips, but said the company expects to be “treated like a customer” and receive “further discounts for friends and family.” are doing.
An Intel spokesperson said in a follow-up email that contract manufacturing customers “may receive favorable pricing based on anticipated volume, and the Intel business unit is currently Intel Foundry’s largest customer.” ”.
(Reporting by Max A. Charney and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Michael Perry)
