Alibaba has developed a new AI chip, which is currently in testing, designed for a broad range of inference tasks, such as powering the responses from a smartphone voice assistant. The chip is manufactured by a Chinese company and is more versatile than Alibaba's older chips. It is designed for inference, not for training AI models—an area where China's biggest weakness lies compared to the US.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Alibaba's new chip is compatible with the Nvidia software platform, meaning engineers can repurpose programs written for Nvidia hardware. The chip helps to fill the void created after Nvidia ran into regulatory barriers restricting sales of its products in China. Alibaba was long one of Nvidia's biggest customers before these restrictions were put in place.
