Intel is planning a new strategy to compete better with rivals Nvidia and AMD in the booming AI chip market. The company intends to begin shipping a new artificial intelligence graphics processing unit (GPU), called Crescent Island, by the end of this year. According to Intel data centre chief Kevork Kechichian, the chip is designed to target AI inference workloads and will use lower-cost memory and cooling technologies compared to competing products from Nvidia and AMD.Speaking to the Financial Times, Kechichian said Intel is taking a more measured approach after previous attempts to gain traction in the AI accelerator market failed to deliver the expected results. The executive said the company is “starting with the basics” as it works to rebuild its position in AI-focused semiconductors.“We decided to start rebuilding our muscles in AI . . . [but] we are not particularly aiming for [the training market] based on past experience,” Kechichian said.The Crescent Island GPU is focused on inference tasks, which occur when users interact with AI models and receive responses. This differs from AI training, where Nvidia currently maintains a dominant market position. Intel's earlier AI training chip, Gaudi, struggled to gain adoption, and plans for its successor were cancelled last year.Intel targets lower-cost AI infrastructure to compete with Nvidia and AMDOne of Intel’s key differentiators is its efforts to reduce customer deployment costs. The Crescent Island chip will use LPDDR5 memory rather than high-bandwidth memory (HBM) commonly used in Nvidia and AMD AI accelerators. The new chip will also be air-cooled, eliminating the need for liquid-cooling infrastructure often required for high-performance AI systems.Kechichian said the chip has been developed over the past 18 months and will initially be shipped in limited quantities to customers before a broader rollout.The project marks Intel’s first major AI infrastructure push under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took charge last year following leadership changes at the company. Tan has focused on reducing costs, refining product strategies, and strengthening Intel’s position in key semiconductor markets.Intel is also evaluating whether versions of Crescent Island could be sold in China while complying with US export restrictions. Current trade regulations have limited Nvidia and AMD’s ability to sell certain advanced AI chips in the country.“There are tiers of [the chip] that might be OK there . . . and we’ll confirm that over time: clearly there is demand for that particular price point in that particular market,” Kechichian noted.The company is also seeking to manufacture more of its future data centre products in-house rather than relying on external foundries. Intel recently launched advanced PC and server chips produced in-house after years of depending heavily on external manufacturing partners.“For all data centre products we are moving aggressively into our own foundry. That’s the intent in general,” Kechichian added.Intel believes that producing chips internally could further lower costs and provide another way to compete with rivals that continue to rely on external manufacturing partners for advanced AI processors.