Intel Is Launching A New Enterprise-focused GenAI Software Company

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Intel, looking to make bigger moves in the AI-powered enterprise software market, is launching a new platform company with the backing of Boca Raton, Florida-based asset manager and investor DigitalBridge.

The new company, called Articul8 AI (a strange acronym for “Articulate AI”), is based on a proof-of-concept of an Intel collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in early May last year. Portal reports that using its hardware and a combination of open source and internally built software, Intel has developed a generative AI system that can read text and images – which runs in BCG's data centers to meet BCG's security requirements .

The system was developed at Intel over about two years. However, according to CRN, it has recently been refined for BCG's specific uses.

Initially, BCG was the system's sole go-to-market provider and customer. 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, semiconductors, telecommunications and other industries that require “high “require a level of security and specialist expertise”. “, said an Intel spokesman.

“Articul8’s Gen AI software product was built from the ground up to meet the needs of enterprises and is optimized for speed of deployment, 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 company's security perimeter. The platform also offers customers the choice of cloud, on-prem or hybrid deployment.”

Arun Subramaniyan, formerly VP and GM of Intel's data center and AI group, will become CEO of the spinout. The rest of the Articul8 team will also consist of former Intel employees, and Intel will retain an undisclosed stake in the company.

In addition to Intel and DigitalBridge, a listed company and a major investor in data centers, Articul8's investors include Fin Capital, Mindset Ventures, Communitas Capital, GiantLeap Capital, GS Futures and Zain Group.

“Intel and Articul8 remain strategically aligned and Intel plans to leverage Articul8's enterprise-generation AI software for internal use cases and offer it to end customers through a joint go-to-market partnership,” the spokesperson said. “This collaboration will increase the usage of Intel computing offerings [and] Intel will continue to leverage Articul8’s knowledge and expertise in the AI space as Intel continues to expand its presence in the generative AI market.”

Portal notes that Intel's move to launch Articul8 is its latest attempt to attract outside capital for business units. The chipmaker has spun off auto chip company Mobileye, sold its memory chip division and plans to eventually take its programmable chip unit public.

The spinoffs are part of Intel's strategy to raise capital for CEO Pat Gelsinger's comeback plan, which includes building new chip factories in the U.S. and Europe and introducing new advanced chip manufacturing nodes within the next four years. In particular, Articul8 fits with Gelsinger's plans to deliver new software products and services – including GenAI-based products – that rival those of competitors such as Nvidia and AMD and make Intel hardware more attractive for a range of applications.