The size of Intel’s AI chip business today is huge, but it’s nothing compared to where it expects to be in just four years’ time.
Speaking during the company’s Innovation Summit in Santa Clara, Intel Executive VP Navin Shenoy revealed a new focus on AI development.
The company’s AI-focused Xeon processors generated $1 billion in revenues during 2017. By 2022, it expects to be generating around $10 billion per year.
AI is set to be implemented in many areas of our lives in the coming years, across a variety of devices.
Shenoy claims recent breakthroughs have increased the company’s AI performance by 200x since 2014. He teases further improvements are on their way in upcoming releases.
The company will be launching its ‘Cascade Lake’ Xeon processor later this year with 11 times better performance for AI image recognition.
Arriving in 2019 will be ‘Cooper Lake’ which uses 14-nanometer manufacturing and will feature even better performance. In 2020, however, the company is targeting ‘Ice Lake’ with 10-nanometer manufacturing technology.
“After 50 years, this is the biggest opportunity for the company,” says Shenoy. “We have 20 percent of this market today.”
The admission it currently has a small share of the market today is bold and shows the company is confident about significantly upping that percentage in the coming years. It faces significant competition from Nvidia in particular.
Intel’s revenues were around a third data-centric five years ago. Now, it’s around half of Intel’s business.
Shenoy’s comments today show how seriously Intel is taking its AI business and the firm’s confidence it will be a major player.
What are your thoughts on Intel’s AI business? Let us know in the comments.
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