Google and Intel deepen AI infrastructure partnership

Google and Intel have announced an expanded multiyear partnership that will allow Google Cloud to continue utilizing Intel's AI infrastructure and co-develop processors. Google Cloud will employ Intel's Xeon processors, including the latest Xeon 6 chips, for AI, cloud, and inference tasks. The company has been using various Xeon processors from Intel for decades.

The companies will also expand their collaboration on custom infrastructure processing units (IPUs), which help accelerate and manage data center tasks by offloading them from central processing units (CPUs). This chip development partnership, which began in 2021, will focus on custom ASIC-based IPUs.

Intel declined to disclose any pricing information regarding the deal. This expansion comes as the industry faces a growing demand for CPUs. While GPUs are essential for developing and training AI models, CPUs are crucial for running AI models and overall AI infrastructure.

Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated in a company press release, “AI is reshaping how infrastructure is built and scaled. Scaling AI requires more than accelerators — it requires balanced systems. CPUs and IPUs are central to delivering the performance, efficiency, and flexibility that modern AI workloads demand.”

Recently, more companies have been turning their attention to CPUs due to a growing shortage of these chips. SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings recently announced the Arm AGI CPU, the first chip produced by the semiconductor giant itself amid a global CPU crunch.