The directive of Intel has decided to start developing GPUs. This has been confirmed by the Company CEO, Lip-Bu Tanduring his participation in the Cisco AI Summit, in which he also commented that has already hired the head of the division in charge of its manufacturing. He has not said who it is, but everything indicates that it is Eric Demmers, who joined Intel last month from Qualcomm, and who will report his activity to the Head of Chips for Data Centers, Kevork Kechichian.
In fact, according to the Intel executive in an interview with Reuters, the company’s efforts in terms of manufacturing GPUs will focus on models designed for data centers, an area in which Nvidia has experienced significant growth in recent years.
Intel is known primarily for its design and manufacturing of CPUs, but last October it already gave hints that it was aiming for more with the presentation of a new GPU for data centers, called Crescent Island, designed for the management of AI inference workloads. With this step, the company wants to advance in AI accelerators, after not achieving the desired objectives with the Gaudi accelerator, which has failed to stand up to AMD and NVIDIA.
Regarding the development of GPUs for data centers, Tan has assured that the design and development of GPUs is linked to data centers, and that they are working with clients in that sector, with the aim of defining what they need in this regard.
According to the Head of Intel, there are also a couple of clients who are interacting very actively with the chip manufacturing division, Intel Foundry, whose interest is mainly related to Intel’s 14A manufacturing technology. Furthermore, he confirmed that it is Foundry manufacturing volume is likely to increase significantly well into 2026.
