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Pat Gelsinger, CEO Intel, speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 16th, 2024.

Adam Galici | CNBC

Intel on Tuesday unveiled its latest artificial intelligence chip, called Gaudi 3, as chipmakers rush to produce semiconductors that can train and deploy big AI models, such as the one underpinning OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Intel says the new Gaudi 3 chip is over twice as power-efficient as and can run AI models one-and-a-half times faster than Nvidia’s H100 GPU. It also comes in different configurations like a bundle of eight Gaudi 3 chips on one motherboard or a card that can slot into existing systems.

Intel tested the chip on models like Meta’s open-source Llama and the Abu Dhabi-backed Falcon. It said Gaudi 3 can help train or deploy models, including Stable Diffusion or OpenAI’s Whisper model for speech recognition.

Intel says its chips use less power than Nvidia’s.

Nvidia has an estimated 80% of the AI chip market with its graphics processors, known as GPUs, which have been the high-end chip of choice for AI builders over the past year.

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Intel said that the new Gaudi 3 chips would be available to customers in the third quarter, and companies including Dell, HP and Supermicro will build systems with the chips. Intel didn’t provide a price range for Gaudi 3.

“We do expect it to be highly competitive” with Nvidia’s latest chips, said Das Kamhout, vice president of Xeon software at Intel, on a call with reporters. “From our competitive pricing, our distinctive open integrated network on chip, we’re using industry-standard Ethernet. We believe it’s a strong offering.”

The data center AI market is also expected to grow as cloud providers and businesses build infrastructure to deploy AI software, suggesting there is room for other competitors even if Nvidia continues to make the vast majority of AI chips.

Running generative AI and buying Nvidia GPUs can be expensive, and companies are looking for additional suppliers to help bring costs down.

The AI boom has more than tripled Nvidia’s stock over the past year. Intel’s stock is only up 18% over the same time period.

AMD is also looking to expand and sell more AI chips for servers. Last year, it introduced a new data center GPU called the MI300X, which already counts Meta and Microsoft as customers.

Earlier this year, Nvidia revealed its B100 and B200 GPUs, which are the successors to the H100 and also promise performance gains. Those chips are expected to start shipping later this year.

Nvidia has been so successful thanks to a powerful suite of proprietary software called CUDA that enables AI scientists to access all the hardware features in a GPU. Intel is teaming up with other chip and software giants, including Google, Qualcomm and Arm to build open software that isn’t proprietary and could enable software companies to easily switch chip providers.

“We are working with the software ecosystem to build open reference software, as well as building blocks that allow you to stitch together a solution that you need, rather than be forced into buying a solution,” Sachin Katti, senior vice president of Intel’s networking group, said on a call with reporters.

Gaudi 3 is built on a five nanometer process, a relatively recent manufacturing technique, suggesting that the company is using an outside foundry to manufacture the chips. In addition to designing Gaudi 3, Intel also plans to manufacture AI chips, potentially for outside companies, at a new Ohio factory expected to open in 2027 or 2028, CEO Patrick Gelsinger told reporters last month.

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Alex Karp blasts ‘Big Short’ investor Michael Burry as ‘bats— crazy’ for bets against Palantir, Nvidia

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Alex Karp blasts 'Big Short' investor Michael Burry as 'bats--- crazy' for bets against Palantir, Nvidia

Alex Karp on 'Big Short' investor Michael Burry: 'Bats--- crazy' for bets against Palantir, Nvidia

Palantir CEO Alex Karp ranted against short-sellers, calling out specifically Michael Burry after a filing revealed the investor of “The Big Short” fame had bets against the AI software company, as well as Nvidia, at the end of the last quarter.

“The two companies he’s shorting are the ones making all the money, which is super weird,” Karp told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats— crazy.”

“He’s actually putting a short on AI… It was us and Nvidia,” Karp added.

When reached via email by CNBC seeking comment on Karp’s remarks, Burry declined to comment.

Palantir shares slid roughly 9% Tuesday even after the software company beat Wall Street estimates for the third quarter and offered upbeat guidance. Investors have grown increasingly wary of lofty valuations in AI-linked names. Palantir shares, which were up 173% for the year heading into Tuesday’s trading, have a forward price-earnings ratio of 228. Nvidia fell more than 2% after gaining more than 50% this year.

“I do think this behavior is egregious and I’m going to be dancing around when it’s proven wrong,” said Karp of short-sellers.

Burry’s hedge fund Scion Asset Management disclosed put options with a notional value of about $187 million against Nvidia and $912 million against Palantir as of Sept. 30. in a filing. The filing didn’t specify the strike prices or expiration dates of the contracts.

It’s unclear whether Burry is profiting from Tuesday’s declines. The filing reflects his positions at the end of September, and he may have since adjusted his portfolio by now. Burry declined to comment on his positions.

“It’s not even clear he’s shorting us. It’s probably just, ‘How do I get my position out and not look like a fool?'” Karp said.

The disclosure comes after Burry hinted at renewed caution in markets in a cryptic post on X last week.

“Sometimes, we see bubbles. Sometimes, there is something to do about it. Sometimes, the only winning move is not to play,” he wrote to his 1.3 million followers on the platform.

Burry gained fame for his prescient bet against mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis, a trade chronicled in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short and the Oscar-winning film of the same name.

“With the shorts it’s very complex…honestly I think what’s going on here is market manipulation,” Karp said. “We delivered the best results anyone’s ever seen. It’s not even clear he’s not doing this to get out of his position. I mean these people, they claim to be ethical, but they are actually shorting one of the great businesses of the world.”

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Bitcoin’s November sell-off worsens as investors reduce risk on worries about the AI trade

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Bitcoin's November sell-off worsens as investors reduce risk on worries about the AI trade

Representation of Bitcoin cryptocurrency in this illustration taken Sept. 10, 2025.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Bitcoin fell victim to investors’ risk-off mood Tuesday as cryptocurrency holders backed off, growing increasingly concerned about the sustainability of stock valuations driven to stratospheric heights by the artificial intelligence trade.

Bitcoin was last trading at $103,952, down 2.5% on the day and roughly 6% in the past two days. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, shed 2.5% on Tuesday and has now lost more than 10% over two days to trade at $3,503.

The leading cryptocurrencies attract many of the same investors as artificial intelligence stocks, linking the two trades when one goes bad. The Nasdaq Composite, home to the leading AI stocks, dropped almost 1% Tuesday, with investors selling AI-linked Palantir on concerns about its eye-watering valuation despite the data manager’s solid earnings results in its latest quarter.

Absent individuals

Compass Point analyst Ed Engel said individual investors may not be buying the dip as much as in the past.

“While selling from Long-term Holders is a common feature in bull markets, retail spot buyers have been less engaged than prior cycles,” he said in a note.

The latest downdraft could pull bitcoin deeper into the red, dragging the token below its critical $100,000 support level, according to the analyst.

“With Long-term Holders still selling, this leaves further downside risk if Short-term Holders’ capitulate further,” Engel wrote. “While we see support for BTC above $95k, we also don’t see many near-term catalysts.”

Bitcoin’s price has largely trended downward over the past few weeks, with October’s historically strong seasonality failing to materialize this year.

Bitcoin last failed to rise on seasonal tailwinds in October 2018, Engel noted. In the month that followed, Bitcoin plunged 37% in November of that year.

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Instacart rolls out AI tools for grocers, Sprouts will be first to use its Cart Assistant

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Instacart rolls out AI tools for grocers, Sprouts will be first to use its Cart Assistant

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Instacart on Tuesday launched a suite of artificial intelligence tools for grocers to deliver more personalized shopping experiences and improve retail operations.

CEO Chris Rogers told CNBC that the announcement is a major step forward in the company’s enterprise strategy, which has grown to power hundreds of digital storefronts.

“It’s taking everything that we’ve been building for retailers over the last decade, and it’s bringing it into the AI era,” Rogers said. “It’s really about putting enterprise-grade AI tech in every grocer’s hands, whether it’s a small, local independent or a national chain.”

The collection of new AI Solutions includes an AI shopping assistant that grocers can provide to shoppers for personalized meal planning, budgeting, and product recommendations.

Dubbed Cart Assistant, the agent can be used across retailers’ websites through Instacart’s Storefront Pro or integrated into the company’s AI-powered shopping carts in-store, according to a release.

Sprouts Farmers Market and Kroger will be the first to roll out Cart Assistant on its website and app.

“AI is transforming the way people shop and today’s customers want the experience to be more personal and intuitive,” said Sprouts President and Chief Operating Officer Nick Konat in a release.

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The suite also offers Store View, which provides grocers a real-time view of store shelves and uses images and videos to identify which products are running low or out of stock. Store View is already live with McKeever’s and Good Food Holdings.

The lineup additionally includes an AI-driven catalog system and agentic analysis of retail data to provide business insights.

The online delivery firm is also working with AI companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and others to “define how grocery shopping is going to work across the next generation of digital agents,” Rogers said.

Instacart’s new products are just the latest examples of generative AI’s rising popularity within the retail industry. Amazon debuted an AI agent for third-party sellers in September, and Walmart launched “super agents” that cater to shoppers, sellers, and suppliers earlier this year.

Instacart shares took a hit after Amazon rolled out its same-day delivery service in August and faces competition from brick-and-mortar retail giants like Walmart and Target, which have their own delivery services.

However, Rogers said that Instacart is working with other grocers to help them compete against industry heavyweights.

“Our retail partners already look at look at us as their technology partner in the grocery industry, and they want to participate in the AI revolution the same way the largest players in the industry do,” Rogers said.

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