On December 16, 2019, Intel announced the acquisition of Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for the data center, for approximately $2 billion. Habana Labs will join Intel’s Data Platforms Group, which includes Intel’s portfolio of data center class AI technologies. Habana Labs chairman Avigdor Willenz agreed to serve as a senior adviser to the business unit and to Intel. Intel commented that Habana will provide Intel with AI capabilities built over the last three years, including AI software, algorithms and research. Intel expects the acquisition to strengthen its AI portfolio and to accelerate its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon (i.e., chip) market, which it expects to worth more than $25 billion by 2024. The AI silicon for data centers market within the broader market is estimated to reach $10 billion in that same time frame. In 2019, Intel expects to generate more than $3.5 billion in revenue from AI-driven products, up more than 20% year over year. Habana Labs is an AI processor company founded in 2016 to design processor platforms optimized for training deep neural networks and for inference deployment in production environments. The company has 101–250 employees and has raised total funding of $75 million, according to Crunchbase. Habana Labs is currently sampling its Gaudi AI Training Processor chips with select hyperscale customers. The company expects large-node training systems to deliver up to a fourfold increase in throughput versus comparable systems built with the equivalent number of GPUs. In addition, the company said its commercially available Goya AI Inference Processor offers excellent inference performance, including throughput and real-time latency in a highly competitive power envelope. Implications for Retail AI is a fundamental technology for deploying machine learning to enable predictive analytics and customization and personalization in retail. Intel is deploying its own cash to accelerate development or to fill gaps in its product portfolio to be a major player in the AI hardware sector.