- Intel signs a partnership with AI chip SambaNova
- The firm has also taken part in a $350 million investment round
- One analyst noted that SambaNova will use Intel's Xeon server chip with its AI inference chip
Jack Gold, principal analyst at J.Gold Associates, said that Intel's partnership with, and investment in, AI chip startup SambaNova indicates its approach to AI inferencing workloads going forward.
Intel has taken part in the startup's latest $350 million investment round. Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan will serve as SambaNova's executive director. Tan first started investing in the startup in 2019.
"The shift to AI inference is real and accelerating," Gold said in a research note today. "With 80+% of AI workloads moving to inference in the next 1-2 years, this is a major opportunity for both companies."
AI processors
Gold noted that Nvidia, followed by AMD, are currently at the top of the AI processor tree, but the AI processor market will be multi-vendor for the foreseeable future.
"SambaNova’s product is optimized for inference workloads, but it still requires a high end server chip to run a complete system to interact with the real world," the analyst said. "Intel’s Xeon still has a commanding presence in server and cloud-based compute and has made significant inroads in generalized CPU processing, including for some inference workloads that run well on CPUs."
This partnership is low risk for Intel and presents it with an opportunity to expand its AI market, the analyst said. "For SambaNova, it’s a bet on both the partnership expanding its market and credibility, as well as a potential source of IP, and perhaps eventually even use of Intel Fabs for its processor requirements," Gold concluded.