Yazılar

Broadcom unveils Thor Ultra networking chip to challenge Nvidia in AI data centers

/in /tarafından

Broadcom has launched its new Thor Ultra networking chip, designed to help companies build massive artificial intelligence computing systems by linking together hundreds of thousands of processors — escalating its rivalry with Nvidia in the race to dominate AI infrastructure.

Unveiled on Tuesday, the Thor Ultra chip enables data center operators to connect far more AI processors than before, making it easier to train and deploy large models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The launch follows Broadcom’s announcement on Monday of a major deal to deliver 10 gigawatts of custom chips for OpenAI starting in 2026, further challenging Nvidia’s dominance in AI accelerators and networking technologies.

“The network plays an extremely important role in building these large clusters,” said Ram Velaga, Broadcom’s senior vice president. “So I’m not surprised that anybody in the GPU business wants to participate in networking.”

AI has become a $60 billion to $90 billion market opportunity for Broadcom by 2027, according to CEO Hock Tan, split between networking chips and custom data center processors built for companies such as Google and OpenAI. In 2024, Broadcom reported $12.2 billion in AI revenue, and in September it disclosed a $10 billion unnamed customer for its AI chips.

The Thor Ultra doubles the bandwidth of its predecessor and acts as a vital link between AI systems and the rest of the data center, improving data transfer speeds and scalability. Engineers developed it alongside Broadcom’s Tomahawk networking switches, refining every detail from power consumption to thermal management.

While Broadcom does not sell servers directly, it provides reference designs for partners to build upon. “For every dollar we invest in our silicon, our ecosystem partners invest six to ten times more,” Velaga said, emphasizing the company’s design-first strategy in the AI infrastructure market.

Intel unveils new AI data center chip “Crescent Island” to relaunch AI ambitions

/in /tarafından

Intel has announced plans to launch a new artificial intelligence chip for data centers next year, marking a renewed effort to reclaim ground in the booming AI hardware market dominated by Nvidia and AMD.

The new GPU, named Crescent Island, will prioritize energy efficiency and be optimized for AI inference workloads, Intel Chief Technology Officer Sachin Katti said at the Open Compute Summit on Tuesday. “It emphasizes our focus on inference, optimized for AI, and for delivering the best performance per dollar,” Katti said.

The announcement represents Intel’s latest bid to reenter the AI race after CEO Lip-Bu Tan pledged to restart the company’s stalled AI programs, including the Gaudi and Falcon Shores lines. Despite trailing competitors, Intel hopes to capture a meaningful share of the rapidly expanding data center market fueled by generative AI adoption since ChatGPT’s 2022 debut.

Crescent Island will feature 160 gigabytes of memory, though slower than the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AMD and Nvidia’s top-tier AI chips. The chip will be based on Intel’s existing consumer GPU architecture, underscoring the company’s modular approach that allows customers to mix and match chips from multiple vendors.

Intel also committed to releasing new data center AI chips annually, matching the cadence of rivals AMD, Nvidia, and major cloud providers developing their own silicon.

The move follows Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel, which gave it a 4% stake and launched a partnership to co-develop future AI and PC chips. Katti said the collaboration aims to ensure Intel CPUs remain integrated into AI systems worldwide as the company seeks to position itself as an indispensable player in next-generation computing.

U.S. approves multi-billion-dollar Nvidia chip exports to UAE, Bloomberg reports

/in /tarafından

The U.S. government has approved several billion dollars’ worth of Nvidia chip exports to the United Arab Emirates, according to Bloomberg News. The export licenses were issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security as part of a bilateral artificial intelligence agreement reached in May.

The deal will enable the UAE to build large-scale data centers essential for developing and training advanced AI models, deepening technological cooperation between the two countries. In return, the UAE has committed to making a reciprocal investment in the U.S., the report said.

An official from the Commerce Department told Bloomberg the agency is “fully committed to the transformational U.S.–UAE AI partnership deal.” Neither Nvidia nor the White House commented directly on the report, and UAE representatives could not be reached.

The export agreement is expected to allow the Emirates to import up to 500,000 of Nvidia’s high-performance AI chips annually starting in 2025, under a framework that could extend through 2030, as Reuters reported earlier this year.

The approval aligns with President Donald Trump’s renewed Gulf outreach, which in May yielded $600 billion in commitments from Saudi Arabia, including chip deals with Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm. The move strengthens Washington’s push to build regional AI alliances amid intensifying global competition for computing power.