Intel made headlines on Tuesday with the unveiling of its latest artificial intelligence chip, dubbed Gaudi 3, as the competition intensifies with industry leader Nvidia.
With Nvidia currently commanding an estimated 80% share of the AI chip market, Intel is strategically positioning its Gaudi 3 chip to challenge Nvidia’s dominance. The new chip is engineered to meet the demands of training and deploying large AI models, including those utilized by platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
According to Intel, the Gaudi 3 chip boasts remarkable power efficiency, outperforming Nvidia’s H100 GPU by running AI models one-and-a-half times faster while consuming over twice less power. It offers versatile configurations, such as a package containing eight Gaudi 3 chips on a single motherboard or a card compatible with existing systems.
During testing, Intel assessed the chip’s capabilities on various models, including Meta’s open-source Llama and the Falcon project backed by Abu Dhabi. The company emphasized Gaudi 3’s potential in facilitating the training and deployment of models like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s Whisper for speech recognition.
In terms of availability, Intel announced that the Gaudi 3 chips would be accessible to customers in the third quarter of this year. Major players in the tech industry, including Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Supermicro, are expected to integrate these chips into their systems. However, Intel refrained from disclosing specific pricing details for the Gaudi 3.
Das Kamhout, vice president of Xeon software at Intel, expressed confidence in the competitiveness of the Gaudi 3 chips compared to Nvidia’s latest offerings. He highlighted Intel’s focus on providing competitive pricing and leveraging an open integrated network on chip, which utilizes standard Ethernet.
Despite Nvidia’s stronghold in the AI chip market, the emergence of alternative competitors like Intel and AMD signals a shifting landscape. As cloud providers and businesses continue to invest in AI infrastructure, there is a growing demand for diverse chip suppliers to mitigate costs and drive innovation.
While Nvidia remains a dominant force, Intel and AMD are making significant strides to capture a larger share of the lucrative AI market. With advancements in chip technology and strategic partnerships, the competition is expected to intensify in the coming years, ultimately benefiting consumers and driving further innovation in AI.