Intel will start manufacturing GPUs, a market dominated by Nvidia

As Intel continues to rebuild, its CEO has promised to start producing a new type of chip that has been hugely popular by rival Nvidia.

At the Cisco AI Summit on Tuesday, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announced that the company will begin producing graphics processing units (GPUs). These are more specialized processors compared to the CPUs traditionally produced by Intel and are used for tasks such as gaming and training artificial intelligence models.

TechCrunch has reached out to Intel for more information.

The project will be overseen by Kevork Keshichian, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, Reuters reports. Kechichian was hired in September among a number of new hires, mostly engineers.

Intel also hired Eric Demers for this effort in January. Mr. Demers previously spent more than 13 years at Qualcomm, most recently serving as senior vice president of engineering.

The initiative appears to be in a relatively early stage, as Tan said the company plans to develop its strategy based on customer demand and needs.

Nvidia didn’t invent the GPU, but its particular type of chip played a big role in its success. The company’s GPUs for AI systems are so advanced and popular that the chipmaker currently holds a commanding lead in the market.

It’s interesting that Intel is moving into this space now, since when Tan took over as CEO last March, he said the company would consolidate and focus on its core business. Of course, GPUs are still semiconductors, but this is still a notable expansion.