By Jeffrey Dastin
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Tuesday said the company plans to build graphics processing units (GPUs), the category of chip popularized by Nvidia.
"I just hired the chief GPU architect, and he's very good. I'm very delighted he joined me," Tan said, claiming that it took some persuading.
Qualcomm executive Eric Demmers last month went to Intel, a move first reported by industry publication CRN and later confirmed by Demmers on LinkedIn.
In an interview with
Reuters on the sidelines of the Cisco AI Summit, Tan said the GPU effort is being overseen by Intel's data center chip chief Kevork Kechichian.
"It's tied in with the data center," Tan told Reuters. "We're working with customers, and will then define what the customer needs."
Tan said from the stage that "a couple of customers are engaging heavily" with Intel's chip contract manufacturing operation, called Intel Foundry. In the interview with Reuters, he said that the interest was around Intel's 14A manufacturing technology and that volume manufacturing would likely ramp up later this year.
"In order to have a customer ... they have to let us know what is the volume and which product, so that we can plan and take time to build the capacity," Tan told Reuters.
(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco,; Writing by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Mark Porter)
