Google Expands in-House Chip Efforts for AI Data Centers
Miles Kruppa and Asa Fitch, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+):
Google is making more of its own semiconductors, preparing a new
chip that can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big
data analysis as the company tries to combat rising
artificial-intelligence costs.
The new chip, called Axion, is a type of chip commonly used in big
data centers. It adds to Google’s efforts stretching back more
than a decade to develop new computing resources, beginning with
specialized chips used for AI work. Google has leaned into that
strategy since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT kicked off an arms
race that has threatened its dominant position as a gateway to the
internet.
The chip efforts promise to reduce Google’s reliance on outside
vendors and bring it into competition with longtime partners such
as Intel and Nvidia, analysts said. Google officials said they
didn’t view it as a competition. “I see this as a basis for
growing the size of the pie,” said Amin Vahdat, the Google vice
president overseeing the company’s in-house chip operations.
Alan Kay’s adage remains evergreen: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”
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Miles Kruppa and Asa Fitch, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+):
Google is making more of its own semiconductors, preparing a new
chip that can handle everything from YouTube advertising to big
data analysis as the company tries to combat rising
artificial-intelligence costs.
The new chip, called Axion, is a type of chip commonly used in big
data centers. It adds to Google’s efforts stretching back more
than a decade to develop new computing resources, beginning with
specialized chips used for AI work. Google has leaned into that
strategy since the late 2022 release of ChatGPT kicked off an arms
race that has threatened its dominant position as a gateway to the
internet.
The chip efforts promise to reduce Google’s reliance on outside
vendors and bring it into competition with longtime partners such
as Intel and Nvidia, analysts said. Google officials said they
didn’t view it as a competition. “I see this as a basis for
growing the size of the pie,” said Amin Vahdat, the Google vice
president overseeing the company’s in-house chip operations.
Alan Kay’s adage remains evergreen: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”