Naver-Intel Establish Joint Research Center to Build AI Chip Ecosystem

Naver Cloud announced on the 11th that it will partner with Intel to open an artificial intelligence (AI) research center and build a new AI chip software (SW) ecosystem.

The two companies decided to establish the 'AI Joint Research Center (NICL, NAVER Cloud·Intel·Co-Lab)'. More than 20 domestic research labs and startups, including KAIST, Seoul National University, and POSTECH, will participate.

At the 'Intel Vision 2024' event, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver Cloud AI Innovation Center, are having a discussion about the collaboration between the two companies.
[Photo by Naver Cloud]

Through the joint research center, Intel will provide IT infrastructure based on its AI accelerator chip 'Gaudi' to enable domestic startups and universities to conduct AI research. Various SW development and industry-academia research projects based on Gaudi will be operated.

Naver Cloud proposed this joint research approach to Intel to revitalize domestic AI research and strengthen the diversity of the AI chip ecosystem. Recently, due to the burden of purchasing AI chips, the AI resource environment for domestic startups and schools has become very poor.

From Intel's perspective, this allows them to demonstrate Gaudi's performance and build a Gaudi-based AI ecosystem including SW and hardware (HW). Naver Cloud plans to lead this research and expand the AI ecosystem centered on 'HyperCLOVA X'.

Kim Yoo-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, emphasized, "Over the past 25 years, Naver has provided users with alternative choices in markets dominated by global big tech companies such as search engines, cloud, and generative AI, and diversity has been one of the important values pursued by Naver. In this context, securing diversity in the current AI chip ecosystem is very meaningful."

Meanwhile, Han Jung-woo, head of the Naver Cloud AI Innovation Center, attended the keynote of Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, at the 'Intel Vision 2024' event and revealed the cooperation between the two companies. They promised to collaborate not only to expand the AI chip ecosystem but also to build commercial cloud services. To this end, Naver Cloud plans to conduct testing of 'Gaudi 2'.