Intel announced on Monday that they just purchased Habana Labs, an Israeli AI chipmaker, for $2 billion, in order to “turbo-charge” Intel’s AI offerings for data centers.
Habana Labs develops programmable deep learning accelerators for the data center.
The acquisition strengthens Intel’s artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio and accelerates its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon market.
In 2019, Intel expects to generate over $3.5 billion in AI-driven revenue, and Intel expects the market to be greater than $25 billion by 2024.
Habana will remain an independent business unit and will continue to be led by its current management team.
Habana chairman Avigdor Willenz has agreed to serve as a senior adviser to the business unit as well as to Intel. Habana will continue to be based in Israel where Intel also has a significant presence and long history of investment. Prior to this transaction, Intel Capital was an investor in Habana.
