What’s going on?

Google revealed its very own AI chip, for its own use.

What does this mean?

• Google’s “Axion” chip will essentially work as a brain for data centers, which fuel Google’s search engine and AI projects that could handle everything from tailoring YouTube ads to analyzing the search results of millions.
• Axion will be built based on Arm’s (a British chip designer) technology, which was also the basis for Microsoft and Amazon’s own chips that were launched months and years ago.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Choose your fighter

• Google’s trying to take a break from buying chips from Intel, Nvidia, and AMD and to become more self-sufficient, and so it’s not putting the chips on the market for sale.
• While Google will use Axion for its own cloud and AI business development, it will also want to equip its AI startups (like Anthropic) with the chips. But as supply chain constraints the chip production volume, Google’s priorities will be observed.

Zooming out: The world out there is also cruel

• Intel also just showed off its new chip Gaudi 3, which is claimed to be faster and more efficient than Nvidia’s H100 (holding around 80% of the chip market) when it comes to certain AI tasks.
• That said, Nvidia’s chips are costly, so customers are always on the lookout for cheaper options (of course, without sacrificing performance). The same is to their stocks, as NVDA has tripled over 23/24 while INTC has only seen a 15% rise.

Content source: 
1. Finimize (2024) Lights, Camera, Axion. https://finimize.com/content/lights-camera-axion [Accessed on Apr 15, 2024]