Intel will start making GPUs, a market dominated by Nvidia 

As Intel continues to try to turn itself around, its CEO promised that the company would produce a new type of chip, one made very popular by rival Nvidia.

At the Cisco AI Summit on Tuesday, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan announced that the company will produce graphics processing units (GPUs). These are more specialized processors, compared to the CPUs that Intel traditionally produces, and are used for gaming and tasks such as training artificial intelligence models.

TechCrunch reached out to Intel for more information.

The project will be overseen by Kevork Kechichian, the executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s data center group, said reporting from Reuters. Kechichian was hired in September from a slew of new engineering-focused hires.

Intel also hired Eric Demers for the effort in January. Demers previously worked at Qualcomm for more than thirteen years, most recently as senior vice president of engineering.

This initiative appears to be at a relatively early stage as Tan said the company plans to evolve its strategy around customer demands and needs.

While Nvidia didn’t invent the GPU, that particular type of chip has played a huge role in its success. The GPUs for AI systems are so advanced and popular that the chipmaker currently has a lead market leadership.

It is interesting to see Intel is now expanding in this area as Tan said the company would consolidate and focus on its core businesses when he took over as CEO last March. Of course, while GPUs are still semiconductors, this is still a notable expansion.