Alibaba to launch own AI chip next year ZDNet

HANGZHOU, CHINA--Alibaba Group has formally established a semiconductor business to produce its own artificial intelligence (AI) chip as well as unveiled plans to develop quantum processors. Driven by the Chinese vendor's research and development (R&D) arm Damo Academy, these efforts would see the launch of Alibaba's first in-house developed AI chip in the second half of next year. Called AliNPU, the new AI chip had the potential to support technologies used in autonomous driving, smart cities, and smart logistics, said Alibaba at its annual flagship computing conference held here Wednesday. Its machine learning specialist also urges need for governments looking to build smart cities, such as Singapore, to ensure its citizens benefit from such initiatives. It also set up a new semiconductor subsidiary, called Pingtouge, which it said would focus on customised AI chips and embedded processors.