Intel recently acquired two AI-related startups as it competes with the likes of Nvidia in its long-term pivot beyond legacy chips.
The chip giant acquired Israel-based Cnvrg.io and San Francisco-based SigOpt in the past week.
Cnvrg.io will be an independent Intel company, serving existing customers such as Lightricks and ST Unitas, but terms of the deal have not been disclosed, according to Intel in a statement to Fierce Electronics. The venture-backed Cnvrg.io makes software to help customers build and manage machine learning models.
Even Nvidia has certified Cnvrg.io AI OS to accelerate AI development on Nvidia DGX systems. Other Cnvrg partners include Red Hat and NetApp.
On Oct. 29, Intel announced it will acquire SigOpt, a platform for optimizing AI software models at scale.
Intel said it plans to use SigOpt’s software across Intel’s AI hardware products to help accelerate Intel AI software products offered to developers. SigOpt co-founders Scott Clark and Patrick Hayes will join the Machine Learning Performance team at Intel.
Intel said it estimates the market for AI silicon will be greater than $25 billion by 2024, while AI chips in the data center will be more than $10 billion. Intel reported $3.8 billion in AI-driven revenue in 2019.
In the third quarter, Intel reported a 4% decline in revenues with a drop in data center revenues. The decline led to a drop in Intel share price, which reached 44.85 at market close on Tuesday.
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Intel acquired Israel-based Mobileye for more than $15 billion in 2017, and the unit is developing autonomous vehicle technologies. In 2019, Intel acquired AI chip producer Habana for $2 billion.