Pingtouge Semiconductor officially launched, Alibaba's first AI chip may be unveiled next year

Source: Content from "Economic Daily", thank you.

Pingtou Ge (Shanghai) Semiconductor, a chip company founded by Alibaba, has recently completed its registration in Shanghai. Alibaba's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and President of the DAMO Academy Zhang Jianfeng revealed that Alibaba's first AI (artificial intelligence) chip is expected to be released in the second half of next year.

This is an independent chip company officially established four years after Alibaba entered the semiconductor industry, and will be located in Zhangjiang Science City. The outside world believes that this will give Zhangjiang's semiconductor integrated circuit industry a second chance to take off.

At the end of November this year, the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park, covering an area of ​​about 3 square kilometers, was officially unveiled in the core area of ​​Zhangjiang Science City. The first batch of companies to move in include Tsinghua Unigroup, Shanghai Will Semiconductor, Beijing GigaDevice Technology and Alibaba (China) Co., Ltd.

According to China Business News, according to the mainland's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, Pingtou Ge (Shanghai) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. was registered on November 7 with a registered capital of RMB 10 million. The legal representative is Liu Xiangwen. Shareholder information shows that its shareholder sponsor is Alibaba Damo Academy (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd.

Zhang Jianfeng announced at the 2018 Yunqi Conference on September 19 that he hopes to be able to develop a quantum chip within two to three years. At the same time, he will establish an independent Pingtou Ge Semiconductor Co., Ltd., which will integrate the self-developed chip business of the DAMO Academy with the Zhongtian Microsystems previously acquired by Alibaba to promote an integrated cloud-based chip layout.

Zhang Jianfeng said that the new company will have 200 to 300 employees. In the early stage, Alibaba will invest in and support Pingtou Ge, and in the future, it hopes to become an independently operated market-oriented semiconductor company.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Pingtou Ge Semiconductor Co., Ltd. was named by Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma himself, and its main purpose is to promote cloud-integrated chip layout.

Jiao Yang, a data intelligence scientist at the DAMO Academy, revealed that Alibaba had just recently decided to establish an independent chip company, and the specific organizational structure was still under discussion.

Previously, Alibaba tested the waters in the chip field by acquiring Zhongtianwei, and then gradually studied and integrated it with Alibaba's business to try to design its own AI chips.

Jiao Yang pointed out that the current focus is still on semiconductor design. Unlike the artificial intelligence chips being developed by other startups, Pingtou Ge will pay more attention to the combination of chips with Alibaba's existing business and big data algorithms to make customized AI chips, which is also Alibaba's advantage.

It is reported that in Pingtou Ge's plan, the chip company will be wholly owned by Alibaba, which will not only carry out research and development tasks, but also promote the industrialization of chips and build an ecosystem. In the future, Alibaba will build an intelligent Internet of Things chip platform for many industries such as automobiles, home appliances, and industry.

Alibaba revealed that the first artificial intelligence chip is expected to be released in the second half of next year. The first batch of chips will be used in cloud data scenarios such as Alibaba data centers, city brains and autonomous driving. In the future, it will be open to the public through Alibaba Cloud, so that AI capabilities such as voice recognition and image recognition can be used in the cloud.

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