Google and Intel expand AI infrastructure partnership

Google and Intel announced on Thursday an expanded multiyear partnership for Google Cloud to continue utilizing Intel’s artificial intelligence infrastructure and to co-develop processors. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Google Cloud will use Intel Xeon processors—which are Intel’s brand of server-grade central processing units (CPUs)—including Xeon 6 chips, to run AI, cloud, and inference workloads. Google Cloud has used Intel’s various Xeon processors for decades. Intel declined to share pricing information regarding the deal.

The two companies will also expand their co-development of custom infrastructure processing units (IPUs). These chips help accelerate and manage data center tasks by offloading them from the main CPUs. This chip development partnership, which originally started in 2021, will focus on custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based IPUs.

The expansion comes as the technology industry faces a growing worldwide shortage of CPUs. While graphics processing units (GPUs)—which are processors used for developing and training AI models—are highly sought after, CPUs remain crucial for running those models and supporting general AI infrastructure. More companies have been turning their focus to CPUs in recent months as there is a growing shortage for the chips. Other semiconductor firms are also responding to this demand; for instance, SoftBank-owned Arm Holdings recently announced the Arm AGI CPU, the first chip that the semiconductor giant has produced itself, amid a worldwide crunch for CPUs.

Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan highlighted the necessity of balanced hardware architectures for scaling AI infrastructure. “AI is reshaping how infrastructure is built and scaled,” Tan said. “Scaling AI requires more than accelerators — it requires balanced systems. CPUs and IPUs are central to delivering the performance, efficiency and flexibility modern AI workloads demand.”

Why it matters

The expanded partnership addresses the industry’s growing demand for CPUs, which are essential for running AI models and general AI infrastructure, by leveraging Intel’s Xeon processors and co-developing custom IPUs.