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Intel buys AI startup Nervana

By Mike Rogoway, The Oregonian
Published: August 10, 2016, 3:31pm

PORTLAND — Chipmaker Intel, eager to expand its business, said Tuesday it has purchased a San Diego startup called Nervana.

The companies did not disclose terms of their deal, but online tech journal Recode pegged the transaction at more than $350 million.

Founded by former Qualcomm researcher Naveen Rao, Nervana aims to apply “neural network learning” to computers. Machine learning gives computers a humanlike ability to improve their performance over time by observing results and adjusting their actions in response.

Artificial intelligence can solve arcane computing problems or for practical applications like determining which kind of shampoo an online shopper is most likely to buy. It’s a hot sector in computing, with Nvidia, Google and others designing chips to serve the market.

Intel’s PC business, which makes up most of its revenue, is fading rapidly. But the company’s data center group is thriving, and the computational power inside server farms meshes neatly with the demands of machine learning.

“We believe that bringing together the Intel engineers who create the Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Phi processors with the talented Nervana Systems’ team, we will be able to advance the industry faster than would have otherwise been possible,” wrote Diane Bryant, Intel’s data center chief, in an online posting announcing the deal.

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