Intel
The acquisition of Habana Labs is part of a greater push by Intel towards furthering its development of artificial intelligence. From a technological standpoint, Intel's purchase is a sound move based on Habana's groundbreaking technological advances that have given the startup's hardware a substantial edge over its contemporaries, primarily NVIDIA
From a business standpoint, Intel stands to profit greatly if it can keep pace with and eventually surpass NVIDIA, which has an edge over Intel in the field of artificial intelligence. Habana's performance thus far, and its superior hardware, will help boost Intel's image with its customers and help boost the company's AI portfolio as it looks to capitalize on the rapidly expanding market, which is expected to reach $25 billion in worth by 2024. Intel Vice President and General Manager of the company's Data Platforms Group Navin Shanoy addressed this, stating, "This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need - from the intelligent edge to the data center. Our combined IP and expertise will deliver unmatched computing performance and efficiency for AI workloads in the data center."
Intel's acquisition is only one of many such purchases that the company has made; within the last few years, Intel has acquired several startups, such as Movidius, Nervana, Altera, and Mobileye. Nervana was previously the most prominent of the purchases and was the basis for Intel's recent pushes for artificial intelligence datacenters. The recent purchase of Habana, however, has resulted in Intel abandoning Nervana hardware in favor of Habana's superior hardware, which will give it an edge in its competition with NVIDIA.
As development into the field of AI expands, demand for higher performance hardware will explode as workloads on AI-based hardware increases. Intel's acquisition of Habana is a step in the right direction, as Habana's hardware is well suited for the projected strain that any AI-based hardware will face. Habana, which will continue to operate semi-independently under Intel's supervision, will have access to a greater range of resources through Intel, including decades of research data collected by the company, software, and of course substantial financial investment. The boon from Intel's considerable resource network will likely speed up Habana's development of new hardware, which could stand to help Intel gain a greater market dominance as the AI market expands over the next few years.
