Top 25 AI chip companies: A macro step change inferred from the micro scale

One of the effects of the ongoing trade war between the US and China is likely to be the accelerated development of what are being called "artificial intelligence chips", or AI chips for short, also sometimes referred to as AI accelerators. AI chips could play a critical role in economic growth going forward because they will inevitably feature in cars, which are becoming increasingly autonomous; smart homes, where electronic devices are becoming more intelligent; robotics, obviously; and many other technologies. AI chips, as the term suggests, refers to a new generation of microprocessors which are specifically designed to process artificial intelligence tasks faster, using less power. Obvious, you might think, but some might wonder what the difference between an AI chip and a regular chip would be when all chips of any type process zeros and ones – a typical processor, after all, is actually capable of AI tasks. Graphics-processing units are particularly good at AI-like tasks, which is why they form the basis for many of the AI chips being developed and offered today. Without getting out of our depth, while a general microprocessor is an all-purpose system, AI processors are embedded with logic gates and highly parallel calculation systems that are more suited to typical AI tasks such as image processing, machine vision, machine learning, deep learning, artificial neural networks, and so on. Maybe one could use cars as metaphors. A general microprocessor is your typical family car that might have good speed and steering capabilities.