At Intel’s Vision event on Tuesday, the company unveiled its latest artificial intelligence chip, the Gaudi 3, in a bid to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI semiconductor market. With tech companies in need of alternative sources for scarce AI chips, Intel aims to provide customers with a choice in the industry. According to Intel vice president Jeni Barovian, “They are looking for an open approach.”
The Gaudi 3 chip boasts impressive capabilities, surpassing Nvidia’s prior generation H100 processor. It can train large language models 50% faster and compute generative AI responses, or inference, more quickly for certain models. This breakthrough in performance could potentially disrupt Nvidia’s hold on the data center chip market, where they currently command 83% share.
Intel’s partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co allowed them to utilize the 5nm process to build the Gaudi 3 chips. This new chip comprises two main processor chips fused together, resulting in over twice the speed of its predecessor. When combined with thousands of other Gaudi chips, the compute power generated is truly remarkable.
The Gaudi 3 chip is set to be available to server builders, including Supermicro and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in the second quarter of this year. And Intel already has its sights set on the next generation of Gaudi chips, code-named Falcon Shores.
Intel has been in stiff competition with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to offer compelling bundles of chips and software for AI applications. While Nvidia currently dominates the market, Intel’s Gaudi 3 chip presents a promising alternative. With its faster training capabilities and quicker inference for generative AI responses, Intel may be able to make a significant dent in Nvidia’s market share.
It remains to be seen how Nvidia will respond to Intel’s latest challenge. As the race for AI dominance heats up, the coming months will certainly be an interesting time for the semiconductor industry. Will Intel’s Gaudi 3 chip disrupt Nvidia’s stronghold? Only time will tell.
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