Artificial intelligence (AI) executives at Intel Corp and Naver Corp yesterday touted the importance of forging a united front to counter Nvidia Corp’s dominance in the AI chip market.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel and South Korea’s biggest Internet company are teaming up to expand the open-platform software ecosystem based on Intel’s AI accelerator Gaudi. The two are part of a growing list of firms trying to loosen Nvidia’s dominance on the sector as it gets harder to secure graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerators to train generative AI devices.
“The monopoly situation needs to change in order to grow the market’s own pie and address the AI gap that the GPU supply chain is creating,” Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver’s Future AI Center, said during Intel’s AI conference in Seoul.
Photo: Reuters
Ha is one of the people behind the development of Naver’s HyperClova X large-language models.
Intel and Naver recently agreed to set up an AI chip research lab open to some of the country’s top South Korean universities and start-ups.
“The collaboration with Naver is very important and very strategic because we share a similar vision about the importance of having a robust ecosystem in AI,” said Justin Hotard, Intel’s executive vice president, and general manager of data centers and AI.
Separately, Intel agreed to sell a stake in a venture that controls a plant in Ireland to Apollo Global Management Inc for US$11 billion, helping bring in more external funding for a massive expansion of its factory network.
Under terms of the deal, the investment firm would take a 49 percent share of a joint venture that operates Intel’s Fab 34, the chipmaker said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The announcement highlights Intel’s continued progress in its transformation strategy,” the statement said. “The company continues to advance to create financial flexibility and accelerate its strategy, including investing in global manufacturing operations, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.”
It is the second such investment program that Intel has announced, part of an effort to lessen the burden on its already-stretched finances.
Intel said that construction of the plant, on an existing company site in Leixlip near Dublin, is “largely complete.”
The transaction, which allows Intel to invest elsewhere, would be completed in the second quarter of this year.
Fab 34 is to use Intel’s 4 and 3 manufacturing technologies.
In 2022, Intel announced a deal with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP to secure a US$15 billion commitment to help finance a semiconductor complex in Arizona.
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