Intel acquires Israeli AI processing company Habana Labs for $2bn

Intel acquisition of Habana Labs : Intel has acquired Israeli AI processing company Habana Labs for nearly $2 billion, in a move to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio.

The acquisition of the AI chipmaker is also expected to fast track Intel’s efforts in the AI silicon market, which it predicts to be more than $25 billion by 2024.

Habana Labs, which was established in 2016, is engaged in tapping the potential of AI by giving an order of magnitude improvements in processing performance, cost, and power consumption. The Israeli AI startup is into the development of AI processors from the ground up that are streamlined for the specific requirements of training deep neural networks and for inference deployment in production environments.

The fabless semiconductor company is headquartered in Tel-Aviv and also has operations in San Jose, California. The company had developed the Gaudi AI Training Processor and the Goya AI Inference Processor.

Intel acquisition of Habana Labs. Photo courtesy of Coolcaesar/Wikipedia.org.

David Dahan – CEO of Habana, commenting on Intel acquisition of Habana Labs, said: “We have been fortunate to get to know and collaborate with Intel given its investment in Habana, and we’re thrilled to be officially joining the team.

“Intel has created a world-class AI team and capability. We are excited to partner with Intel to accelerate and scale our business. Together, we will deliver our customers more AI innovation, faster.”

Habana will stay as an independent business unit and will continue to be headed by its current management team. The AI chipmaker will report to Intel’s Data Platforms Group, which holds the latter’s portfolio of data center class AI technologies.

Intel said that the combination gives Habana access to its AI capabilities, including substantial resources which were developed in the past three years with deep expertise in AI software, algorithms and research that will help the Israeli chipmaker scale and accelerate.

Commenting on Intel acquisition of Habana Labs, Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of Intel Data Platforms Group, said: “This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need – from the intelligent edge to the data center.

“More specifically, Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the data center with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI workloads.”