Google Unveils Custom Arm-Based CPU and Data Center AI Chips

• Google unveiled its Google Axion Processor at the Google Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas.
• Google’s tensor processing units are a popular alternative to NVIDIA’s advanced AI chips, which can be accessed through Google’s Cloud Platform.

Google has revealed details about new data center artificial intelligence (AI) chips and announced the release of an Arm-based central processing unit, which will become public later this year. Dubbed the Axion, the new chip is a major move by Google to create a level playing field with competitors like Microsoft and Amazon. The development can have significant ramifications in a hypercompetitive cloud infrastructure market.

The cloud sector is fast-growing, accounting for approximately 11% of Google’s current revenue. In addition, Google has used Arm-based computers for its internal operations. The launch of the Axion is hoped to improve performance and reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions compared to virtual machines based on the standard x86 model.

See More: U.S. Gov Subsidizes Domestic Chip Production With $6.6B Incentives for TSMC and Samsung Under CHIPS Act

Amazon Web Services’s Graviton Arm chip, released in 2018, has achieved a leading position in the marketplace. This was followed by Alibaba, which released an Arm chip in 2021. Microsoft was the most recent entrant in the scene, and its variant was released in November 2023.

Google has also released its new AI chip, the Cloud TPU v5p. The new chip is reportedly ideal for large language models and offers three times the performance of the TPU v4. Google hopes to position the new chips as a viable alternative to NVIDIA’s GPUs. Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon have already developed their own AI chips. Despite the release of the new chips, NVIDIA remains a key supplier for Google, with its chips powering the Google A3 supercomputer. In addition, NVIDIA’s Blackwell chips are used in Google’s AI hypercomputer.

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