Intel Will Start Making GPUs, a Market Dominated by Nvidia

As Intel works to reshape its future, the company’s chief executive has confirmed plans to enter a chip market long dominated by its biggest rival, Nvidia.

Speaking at the Cisco AI Summit on Tuesday, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the company will begin producing graphics processing units (GPUs). Unlike traditional central processing units (CPUs), which Intel has historically focused on, GPUs are specialised chips widely used in gaming and in compute-intensive workloads such as training artificial intelligence models.

According to reporting from Reuters, the new GPU effort will be overseen by Kevork Kechichian, Intel’s executive vice president and general manager of its data centre group. Kechichian joined the company in September as part of a broader wave of engineering-focused hires.

Intel also brought on Eric Demers earlier this year to support the project. Demers previously spent more than 13 years at Qualcomm, most recently serving as a senior vice president of engineering.

The GPU initiative appears to still be in its early stages. Tan indicated that Intel intends to shape its strategy based on customer demand and evolving market needs rather than immediately rolling out a fully defined product roadmap.

While Nvidia did not invent the GPU, the chip category has been central to its rise. NVIDIA’s GPUs, particularly those designed for artificial intelligence workloads, are currently among the most advanced and widely used in the industry, giving the company a dominant position in the market.

Intel’s move into GPUs is notable given Tan’s earlier comments after taking over as CEO last March, when he said the company would focus on consolidating operations and doubling down on its core businesses. Although GPUs remain part of the broader semiconductor space, the expansion marks a significant strategic shift for the company as it seeks new growth opportunities.