The landscape of AI infrastructure is rapidly evolving, and tech giant Intel is striving to make its mark. However, the company has faced challenges, especially in competing with frontrunners like AMD and NVIDIA. While low-power edge AI inference provides potential for gains, Intel struggles significantly in the AI datacenter market.
Initially, Intel planned to fill this gap with its Falcon Shores AI accelerator, which combines CPU and GPU functionalities into a unified architecture. However, this plan hit a roadblock, with co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus revealing that Falcon Shores will now be utilized only as an internal test chip. This decision marks a strategic shift for Intel as the spotlight moves to Jaguar Shores.
Holthaus stated, “This is an attractive market for us over time, but I am not happy with where we are today. On the one hand, we have a leading position as the host CPU for AI servers, and we continue to see a significant opportunity for CPU-based inference on-prem and at the edge as AI-infused applications proliferate. On the other hand, we’re not yet participating in the cloud-based AI datacenter market in a meaningful way.”
Jaguar Shores is positioned to address the AI datacenter space. With a release planned for 2026, its success may hinge on timing given the pace of AI development. Yet, Intel’s roadmap is not just limited to infrastructure. Holthaus emphasized leveraging Intel’s suite of products – CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, FPGAs – to meet customer needs and reduce compute costs.
“We’ve got great CPUs, GPUs, ASICs, FPGAs, and we need to figure out how we harness those because if we’ve seen anything this week, when there are constraints put on customers, they figure out different ways to deploy technology.”
Financially, Intel faces hurdles. The company reported Q4 revenue of $14.3 billion, a 7% decline year-over-year. For the full year, revenues fell 2% to $53.1 billion. Projections for Q1 2025 estimate revenues between $11.7 billion and $12.7 billion. While some business units like Network and Edge showed growth, others including client computing saw declines.
