Intel shares rise on expanded Google AI chip collab

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Intel were rising on Thursday after the announcement of an expanded deal with Google that will see the semiconductor group provide the search-engine giant with central processing units for its AI data centres.

The new multi-year collaboration will see the deployment of multiple generations of Intel's Xeon processors to improve performance, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership across Google's global infrastructure.

Intel Xeon processors already power Google Cloud infrastructure, including the latest Intel Xeon 6 processors, which will now run AI training and inference workloads

Intel and Google are also expanding their co-development of custom application-specific integrated circuit-based intelligence processing units or IPUs - programmable accelerators that offload networking, storage and security functions from host CPUs - to improve utilisation and efficiency, and help a more predictable performance across hyperscale AI environments, Intel said in a statement.

"The expanded collaboration reflects a shared commitment to advancing open, scalable infrastructure for the AI era," Intel said.

"By combining general-purpose compute with purpose-built infrastructure acceleration, Intel and Google are enabling a more balanced approach to AI system design - one that improves utilisation, reduces complexity and scales more efficiently."

Intel's stock was up 2.7% at $60.54 by 1520 GMT, while Google-owner Alphabet fell 1.2% to $311.01.