IBM plans to use own AI chip to lower cloud service costs

IBM is reportedly planning to use its self-developed artificial intelligence chips in a bid to reduce operational expenses for its newly launched cloud computing service. An executive revealed this information to Reuters on Tuesday.

During a semiconductor conference held in San Francisco, Mukesh Khare, the general manager of IBM Semiconductors, revealed in an interview with Reuters that the company is currently considering the utilisation of a chip known as the Artificial Intelligence Unit. This chip would be incorporated into IBM's recently launched cloud service called "watsonx."  

According to the report, the company aims to capitalise on the surge in generative AI technologies capable of producing text that closely resembles human writing. This comes over a decade after the company's initial AI system, Watson, failed to gain significant market success. IBM is aiming to tackle one of the challenges that affected the previous Watson system, high expenses. According to Khare, the utilisation of its own chips has the potential to reduce cloud service expenses due to its exceptional power efficiency.  

IBM announced the chip back in October, yet remained tight-lipped about the manufacturer or how it would be used.   

During the interview, Khare revealed that the chip in question is produced by Samsung Electronics. Notably, Samsung has collaborated with IBM on various semiconductor research endeavors. Khare further mentioned that his company is currently considering the chip's potential utilisation in watsonx.  

IBM has not yet disclosed a specific timeline for the chip's availability to cloud customers. However, according to Khare's statement to Reuters, the company has already developed several thousand functional prototype chips.  

IBM's move to create its own AI chips coincides with the strategy taken by other tech firms such as Google and Amazon.   

The IBM AI chip is primarily intended for inference, which is the process of employing a trained AI system to make real-world decisions. This suggests that IBM is intentionally focusing on the sector of the AI business where it can have the greatest influence right away.