Intel, which plans to make bigger moves in the AI enterprise software market, is spins out a new platform company backed by Boca Raton, Florida-based asset manager and investor DigitalBridge.
Called Article 8 AI (an awkward abbreviation of “Articulate AI”), the new entity is based on a proof of concept from an Intel collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) early last May. Reuters References that Intel, using its hardware and a combination of open source and internal source software, created an artificial intelligence production system that can read text and images — running inside BCG’s data centers to meet BCG’s security requirements.
The system was developed within Intel over the course of about two years. But more recently it has been refined for BCG’s specific uses, according to CRN.
Initially, BCG was the sole supplier and customer of the system. But in recent months, Intel has been working to scale the platform — which is optimized for Intel hardware but supports alternatives — to companies in financial services, aerospace, semiconductor, telecommunications and other industries that “require high levels of security and specialized domain knowledge.” , according to an Intel spokesperson.
“Articul8’s next-generation AI software product was built from the ground up to meet the needs of businesses and is optimized for speed of development, scalability, security and sustainability — including cost,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “The Articul8 platform provides AI capabilities that keep customer data, training and inferences within the enterprise security perimeter. The platform also gives customers a choice of cloud, on-prem or hybrid deployment.”
Arun Subramaniyan, formerly vice president and general manager of Intel’s data center and AI group, will become CEO of the spinout. The rest of Articul8’s team will also be made up of former Intel employees, and Intel will retain an undisclosed stake in the company.
In addition to Intel and DigitalBridge, which is publicly traded and a major data center investor, Articul8’s investors include Fin Capital, Mindset Ventures, Communitas Capital, GiantLeap Capital, GS Futures and Zain Group.
“Intel and Articul8 will remain strategically aligned, and Intel intends to leverage Articul8’s business-generation AI software for internal use cases, as well as offer it to end customers as part of a joint go-to-market partnership,” said representative. “This partnership will lead to the consumption of Intel’s PC offerings [and] Intel will continue to leverage Articul8’s AI domain knowledge and expertise as Intel continues to grow its footprint in the AI market.
Reuters notes that Intel’s move to launch Articul8 is its latest effort to seek outside capital for business units. The chipmaker opened automotive chip company Mobileye, sold out memory chip division of and intends one potential initial public offering of the programmable chip module.
The spinouts are part of Intel’s strategy to raise capital for CEO Pat Gelsinger’s turnaround plan, which includes building new chip factories in the US and Europe, as well as introducing new advanced chip manufacturing hubs over the next four years. Specifically, Articul8 fits into Gelsinger’s plans to deliver new software products and services — including products powered by GenAI — that compete with those from rivals such as Nvidia and AMD and make Intel’s hardware more attractive for a range of applications.
