Legendary chip guru Jim Keller recently shared his views on Intel’s advanced manufacturing processes. He also expressed that he is not worried about oversupply in AI data centers because AI computing needs are endless.
Keller talked about the future of AI data centers in an interview with Nikkei. He said that he is not worried about oversupply problems in AI data centers because the demand for AI computing is endless. "AI has developed very rapidly in the past three years, but everyone always feels that AI has reached its limit. Every month someone says there is a new limit, and the next month it breaks through again. AI is progressing so fast that you will feel dizzy."
Tenstorrent, an AI startup founded by Keller, is valued at more than $2.6 billion, with major investors including Samsung Securities, Bezos Expedition and Hyundai Motor Group. In addition, Keller is also actively promoting the emerging open source architecture RISC-V. Currently, most mobile devices use the Arm architecture, and personal computers mostly use the X86 architecture. RISC-V has previously attracted attention because it can make chips smaller and more power-saving.
Keller believes that the current problem is supply and cost, but as costs decrease and supply increases, more people will be able to afford it. Tenstorrent customers include companies buying products worth $1 million to $10 million, as well as developers buying workstations worth $10,000. There are many such small users, which will also bring greater business opportunities, and Tenstorrent is also very happy to provide services to small customers.
At the same time, Tenstorrent is negotiating with TSMC and Samsung to produce its own chips using the most advanced 2-nanometer technology. The company is also considering letting Intel OEM, but the latter still has a lot of work to do before it can hand over a stable technology blueprint. Keller believes that Rapidus's plan is very active and provides multiple sets of physical design tools (PDK) to Tenstorrent, and the company's chip development engineers also provide a lot of feedback to Rapidus, because customer feedback is crucial to adjusting the production line and ensuring the success of mass production. He also mentioned that the company has not yet decided when Rapidus will begin mass production of Tenstorrent chips.
Currently, Tenstorrent chips use TSMC’s 6nm process, and the next generation Quasar chips will use Samsung’s 4nm process. The company's first chip is based on GlobalFoundries' 12-nanometer process.
Unlike NVIDIA (NVIDIA) and Apple, which mainly rely on one or two large foundries, Tenstorrent cooperates with almost all major foundry partners in the world to push its AI chips into mass production. Keller said that this diversification strategy benefits from the "chiplet" technology trend, which allows the Tenstorrent team to cooperate with multiple foundries to manufacture single chips separately, and finally integrate multiple chip packages into a high-end chip solution. Tenstorrent’s main packaging partner is ASE Investment Holdings.
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