Intel announced Thursday, October 29, 2020, that it plans to acquire artificial intelligence software optimization firm SigOpt. The deal comes as the tech giant doubles down to boost its position in the business of AI.
San Francisco-based startup company SigOpt provides clients with a platform designed to optimize the use of artificial intelligence models. According to Tech Crunch, this technology can be leveraged to run simulations and modeling.
Terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed. However, Intel reportedly plans to integrate SigOpt’s AI technology to its business to help enhance its current line of artificial intelligence tools for its developers.
Co-founders of SigOpt such as chief executive officer Scott Clark and chief technology officer Patrick Hayes, as well as their team, are slated to join Intel’s machine learning performance division, notes Venture Beat.
With SigOpt’s technology, the tech giant expects to participate in an AI-heavy silicon market that could be worth over $25 billion come 2024, states Venture Beat.
The acquisition sees to make Intel an expert in artificial intelligence after it had encountered a series of setbacks. Venture Beats reports the tech giant previously experienced a delay in its 10-nanometer processor hardware, as well as its 7-nanometer manufacturing process.
Apart from this, the company also experienced a break in a deal after spending $2 billion on the Habana Labs acquisition. This ended its Nervana AI model training technology, notes Venture Beat.
Following the acquisition, an Intel spokesperson said to Tech Crunch that they will “continue to work with SigOpt’s existing customer and will also integrate the technology into our product road map.”
The San Francisco-based startup counts clients from Fortune 500 companies as part of its growing clientele. Besides this, SigOpt also provides its services to universities and leading research institutions, as well as consortiums, with the likes of MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the University of California, Berkeley under impressive client list. The product, however, is still in its beta phase.
The deal with SigOpt lends Intel a strong advantage in the field, particularly in streamlining its offerings around the future of technology, AI.
In a statement, chief architect and senior vice president of Intel’s discrete graphics division Raja Koduri said, “In the new intelligence era, AI is driving the compute needs of the future. It is even more important for software to automatically extract the best compute performance while scaling AI models.”
“SigOpt’s AI software platform and data science talent will augment Intel software, architecture, product offerings and teams, and provide us with valuable customer insights. We welcome the SigOpt team and its customers to the Intel family.”
