The demand for AI applications, the ever-growing nature of deep learning models and their increasing complexity mean there is plenty of room for competition when it comes to making computer chips more powerful and efficient for such workloads. GPU juggernaut Nvidia may hold the AI chip crown in multiple respects, but that isn't stopping semiconductor companies both large and small from designing their own AI chip architectures that offer differentiation in terms of features, performance and targeted applications. What follows are the 10 coolest AI chips of 2021, which includes processors from semiconductor giants Intel, AMD and Nvidia, computing juggernaut IBM, cloud service providers Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services and AI chip startups Cerebras Systems, Mythic and Syntiant.

Deep learning models keep getting bigger, and AI-powered devices keep getting smaller, which means there is plenty of room for innovation in the chips that make such applications possible. The race to make faster, more efficient AI chips has many contestants, and they range from the world's largest providers of cloud computing to small startups making chips for edge devices. Nvidia may hold the crown in the AI chip market right now, but many of these companies are hoping to outgun the GPU juggernaut with new, unique processor architectures. What follows are the 10 coolest AI chips of 2021 so far.