Intel spins off its AI software business into an independent company called Articul8 AI, with investment from DigitalBridge Group and other investors.
The new company, which will not be publicly traded, stems from Intel's work with Boston Consulting Group on enterprise AI technology. Articul8 AI aims to address issues such as privacy, security and cost concerns associated with using large cloud computing companies for generative AI work.
It will use Intel's generative AI system, which is based on "open source and internally developed technology" that can read text and images.
Arun Subramaniyan, former vice president and general manager of Intel's data center and AI group, will serve as Articul8's CEO. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
From the announcement, it appears that the new company will focus on providing generative AI solutions that run in-house to address cost and privacy issues with cloud services.
"We've been really trying to address the biggest gap in generative AI today, which is that building a proof of concept is easy, but getting things into production and doing it safely and in a cost sustainable way is really what is missing," Subramaniyan told Reuters.
Intel also recently invested in Stability AI. Intel is providing the Stable Diffusion startup with an AI supercomputer powered by high-end Xeon processors and more than 4,000 Gaudi2 AI processors.
Intel is part of the AI Alliance, which is advocating for more open AI ecosystems. The Alliance was founded by IBM and Meta and has many partners. However, key companies such as Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Google and others are not part of the alliance, making it a bit of an underdog alliance.
