Google Orders 3 Million AI Chips for 2028 from Intel

Google placed an order with Intel to manufacture more than 3 million of its specialized AI chips in 2028. The search giant plans to use Intel to manufacture some of its tensor processing units (TPUs) after months of testing the chipmaker’s manufacturing capabilities.

Google Cloud TPUs are custom chips purpose-built for AI and optimised for training and inference of advanced AI models. The move reflects mounting strain on TSMC, which is struggling to meet surging demand for its foundry capacity, pushing customers to seek alternatives. The deal marks another significant win for Intel after CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who spent much of last year shoring up Intel’s balance sheet through major external investments, now appears to be delivering on operational improvements which seemed unlikely a year ago.

In April, Google expanded its partnership with Intel, committing to use multiple generations of the chipmaker’s CPUs in its AI data centres. Later the same month, Intel revealed a plan to join Elon Musk’s Terafab AI chip project to build processors which would power the billionaire’s orbital data centers and humanoid robots. Last month, the tech giant struck a joint venture agreement with asset management company Blackstone to create a US-based AI cloud company, boosting its TPU manufacturing. Nvidia is also evaluating Intel’s manufacturing technology for a forthcoming processor that could combine four graphics chips into a single unit.