Chipmaker giant Intel, Tuesday announced in a blog post that it is acquiring the deep learning startup Nervana Systems to bolster its Artficial Inteliggence(AI) effort. Online tech portal, Recode estimated the deal to be worth around $408 million, citing sources close to the deal. The two-year-old San Diego-based startup is considered to be one of the leading companies in developing machine learning technology.
"With this acquisition, Intel is formally committing to pushing the forefront of AI technologies. Nervana intends to continue all existing development efforts including the Nervana Neon deep learning framework, Nervana deep learning platform, and the Nervana Engine deep learning hardware," said Naveen Rao, CEO and Co-founder of Nervana in a blog post.
Meanwhile, Diane Bryant, Intel's data center chief, wrote that "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."