Google unveils Arm-based chip in fight with rivals to make cloud computing more affordable
Google made big bang announcements on Tuesday to make cloud computing more affordable and monetise its cloud offerings.
Among several key AI-based product launches and use case demos, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, at its annual Google Cloud Next 2024 in Las Vegas, announced Axion Processor, its first custom Arm-based (ARM) chip or central processing unit (CPU) designed for data centres.
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The new custom silicon chip processor will become available for customers later in 2024. It is already powering YouTube ads, the Google Earth Engine and other Google services.
For now, among global rivals, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed its Graviton Arm-based chip and Inferentia AI processor in 2018. It announced Trainium for training models in 2020. Chinese competitor Alibaba launched arm processors in 2021 and Microsoft launched in November 2023.
In the keynote address, Kurian said, “Google Cloud is the only major cloud provider offering both first-party AI models and third-party AI models on equal footing, which is an incredible differentiator when our partners speak
