Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has responded to NVIDIA’s recent CPU launch which is targeted at AI data centers and servers known as ‘Grace’. Gelsinger stated that when it comes to CPUs specialized for AI processing, his company has a great portfolio and Intel is the leader in this domain.
Intel CEO Recognizes Themselves The Company As A Dramatic Leader of CPUs With Enhanced AI Capabilities
Earlier this week, NVIDIA announced ‘Grace’, its first CPU for data centers and AI cloud computing. Making use of the Neoverse cores and based on the ARM architecture and, the Grace CPU is being positioned by NVIDIA against x86 chips which primarily feature two rivals, Intel & AMD. The Grace CPU is expected to debut in 2023 and has already contracted a deal for two major supercomputers from CSCS & Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Currently, Intel holds a lion’s share of the CPU server market, accounting for over 90% whereas AMD takes home the rest of the share. With its recent launches, AMD has been very competitive against Intel, and they are further expected to gain market share with their recently announced EPYC Milan lineup.
NVIDIA’s Grace CPUs hitting the market would mean a 3rd Major (non-x86) player is entering the field. Intel is not the kind that goes off easy with such news and Gelsinger has issued the following response:
Nvidia today announced some new chips for the data center market, with a particular focus on speeding up artificial intelligence applications with standard chips known as central processing units, or CPUs. The stock market reacted quickly. What’s your competitive position with them?
“We announced our Ice Lake [a new microprocessor for servers] last week with an extraordinarily positive response. And in Ice Lake, we have extraordinary expansions in the A.I. capabilities. [Nvidia is] responding to us. It’s not us responding to them. Clearly, this idea of CPUs that are A.I.-enhanced is the domain where Intel is a dramatic leader.
We also have, with our Habana product line [a specialized A.I. chipmaker Intel bought in 2019], unquestionably laid out a very aggressive path, and our cloud partnership with [hotlink]Amazon[/hotlink] is a great demonstration of that. So clearly, I’d say the idea of CPUs is Intel’s provenance. We’re now building A.I. into that and we expect this to be an area where we are on the offense, not the defense going forward.”
Following the introduction of Grace CPU and its two supercomputers contract, NVIDIA stocks increased while Intel shares dropped, simultaneously. Intel’s CEO believes that it is still NVIDIA whose on the defense while they are on the offense even after the announcement of Grace. Gelsinger also mentioned Intel’s Ice Lake (Recently launched 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable Family) as being an extraordinary chip offering extraordinary AI capabilities. He also called his company a dramatic leader in the AI-enhanced CPU segment.
“The takeaway is that Nvidia is serious about CPUs and will not be constrained by X86 owned by Intel and AMD,” Hans Mosesmann, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, said in a research note. “The level of platform innovation is mind-boggling and something that silicon competitors will be tasked to match for many, many years to come.”
NVIDIA, moving forward, will definitely see the main competition from market leader Intel, while AMD is also planning on investing in AI capabilities in its next-generation Genoa lineup.
