The Chinese technology and e-commerce giant, Alibaba, aims to launch its first self-developed IA inference chip, which could be used for autonomous driving, smart city applications and logistics. Planned for the second half of 2019, the company said this week.
The new subsidiary will manufacture custom AI chips and integrated processors to support Alibaba's drive towards cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The company's aggressive drive to develop its own semiconductors comes as Beijing seeks to give a high incentive to China's high-tech industries to position them in the leadership of artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous transportation, and especially in areas such as caring for health.
A recent report by PwC highlighted the emerging predominance of the service sector in China over the next 20 years, which will lead to the adoption of industrial technologies 4.0. According to that report, China will gain 96 million new jobs by 2037, despite the disruption caused by robotics and artificial intelligence in the existing job market.
In April, Alibaba bought the Chinese chip maker Hangzhou C-SKY Microsystems to help reinforce its ambitions. However, this search for independence has not stopped the company from partnering with the chip giant Intel, to create a new IoT platform.
Intel and Alibaba Cloud have announced the launch of Joint Edge Computing Platform, an open architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) applications that integrates artificial intelligence and cloud technologies for state-of-the-art computing.
The IoT device-to-cloud platform offers business customers customizable solutions for different IoT applications, including industrial manufacturing, smart buildings, smart communities and more.
The joint calculation platform is an open architecture for IoT applications that integrates Intel's software, hardware and IA technologies with the products, platform and IoT operating system of Alibaba Cloud.