US semiconductor giant Intel on Tuesday mounted a defiant stance against a strong challenge from rivals Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm, unveiling technology it claims will lead the artificial intelligence revolution.
For decades, Intel has dominated the market for chips that power everything from laptops to data centers, but in recent years its competitors, notably Nvidia, have made rapid gains in AI-specific processors.
During a keynote address at the Computex Expo in Taiwan, CEO Pat Gelsinger introduced Intel's latest Xeon 6 processors for servers and revealed details about its next-generation Lunar Lake chips for AI PCs.
“AI is driving one of the most significant periods of innovation in the history of industry,” Gelsinger said.
“The magic of silicon will once again enable breakthroughs in computing, pushing the boundaries of human possibility and powering the global economy for years to come.”
Gelsinger said Intel's latest devices offer the best combination of performance, energy efficiency and affordability.
He claimed that Intel's Gaudi system, which is used for advanced AI tasks such as training models, is offered at one-third the cost of systems offered by competitors.
Gelsinger's presentation, which followed keynotes from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD's Lisa Su and Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon, was full of claims and counter-claims about which companies' products are best for AI.
Su and Amon gave detailed presentations on the chips the two companies have developed for AI-enhanced PCs.
Microsoft this month introduced Copilot+ AI PC, which incorporates artificial intelligence capabilities into its Windows operating system.
These will be provided by Microsoft, as well as other world-leading manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Samsung, and Lenovo, and will provide AI capabilities not only via the Internet but also on the device itself.
Gelsinger specifically denied Qualcomm's claims that its AI PC chips are better than Intel's.
“I want to end it right now,” he said. “That's not true!”
Intel cited the Boston Consulting Group as saying that AI computers are expected to account for 80% of the PC market by 2028.
– “AI Smart Island” –
Computex is Taiwan's largest annual technology exhibition, and the country's semiconductor industry is vital to the production of everything from iPhones to the servers that run ChatGPT.
As the world's leading tech companies bet big on AI, Taiwanese manufacturers are emerging as central to their plans.
The island produces the majority of the world's most advanced semiconductors, including those needed for the most powerful AI applications and research.
The Taiwanese government hopes to leverage these capabilities to accelerate the adoption of AI.
“There is a lot of work to be done to make Taiwan an AI smart island,” President Lai Ching-te, who took office last month, said during a visit to COMPUTEX on Tuesday.
But Taiwan's central position in the supply chain for semiconductors, the lifeblood of the modern economy, is a source of concern in capitals and boardrooms around the world.
Taiwan is self-governing, but China claims it as its own territory and says it will never renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated in recent years, with the Chinese military conducting multiple large-scale drills around the island of Taiwan.
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