At 22:00 Beijing time tomorrow (December 14th), Intel will hold a year-end AI hardware drama - a new product launch event with the theme of "AI Everywhere", officially launching the Core Ultra processor codenamed Meteor Lake.
Meteor Lake is Intel's first AI PC processor, with the first built-in artificial intelligence acceleration engine NPU, which can achieve energy-efficient AI acceleration and local inference on the PC.
In the previous warm-up, Intel did not conceal its earnest expectations for this processor. The chip giant stated that the Meteor Lake processor "represents Intel's most significant architectural transformation in 40 years, laying the foundation for PC innovation in the next 10 years," with the aim of "paving the way for the AI PC era.".
It is reported that the processor adopts a separate modular architecture, consisting of four independent modules: computing module, SoC module, graphics module, and IO module, and is connected through Foveros 3D packaging technology. Among them, the computing module adopts Intel 4 process technology for the first time, making the Meteor Lake processor the most energy-efficient client platform in Intel's history.
In the traditional PC industry, Intel has become a key player with its powerful CPU products. In terms of Intel's industry position, it is not an exaggeration to consider the release of the new generation of AI processors as a key node in AI PCs.
Which computer manufacturers have explicitly joined Intel AI PC Moments?
Acer, Asus, and MSI have showcased laptops equipped with Meteor Lake processors. Among them, Asus's first latest Core Ultra laptop, the Lingyao 142024, has opened an appointment and will be officially released on December 15th; Samsung plans to launch the Galaxy Book 4 series products based on the Meteor Lake processor on December 15th; Lenovo and HP will both launch AI PC products in the second half of 2024. Lenovo's products are based on Intel Meteor Lake, while HP has explicitly stated that AI PCs launched next year will use a processor from Intel and other companies.
The industry expects that the first batch of laptops equipped with Meteor Lake processors will be launched at the same time.
Intel expects to ship over 100 million AI PCs by 2025. The cooperation involves 100 ISV partners, covering over 300 AI acceleration features.
Intel's response to the AI PC era has kicked off
With the rapid development of AI technology and breakthrough progress in AI big models, global artificial intelligence devices have entered the eve of the explosive period, and AI is seen as the biggest opportunity for PC industry innovation.
Intel has undoubtedly sensed significant business opportunities. In September of this year, Intel CEO Pat Kissinger was the first to call out the term AI PC and shouted the slogan "Bring AI features to over 100 million PCs by 2025", and various links in the industry chain responded one after another.
On the upstream hardware side, apart from Intel, Qualcomm released the X Elite chip specifically designed for AI during the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit. The chip is suitable for PCs and laptops, supporting generative AI models with over 13 billion parameters on the terminal side. The AI processing speed is 4.5 times faster than competitors, and in some tasks, it is faster than Apple's M2 Max chip and more energy-efficient than Apple and Intel's PC chips.
AMD is equipped with a dedicated AI engine based on Xilinx IP in the Ryzen 7040 series PC processors, called Ryzen AI, which can accelerate the operation of machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and Tensor Flow. It is understood that the engine can handle up to 4 concurrent AI streams and handle INT8 and bfloat 16 instructions. AMD claims that this engine is faster than the neural engine of Apple's M2 processor.
At the same time, computer manufacturers are constantly increasing their terminal products. The industry expects that at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in January next year, multiple PC brands such as Acer, Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte will launch their first wave of AI PC products.
The layout of leading manufacturers in the industrial chain is expected to accelerate the process of AI landing on the PC end. Several institutions have expressed that AI PCs are expected to promote users' perception of AI intelligence and stimulate their demand for device replacement.
Qunzhi Consulting predicts that the global shipment of AI PC machines is expected to reach approximately 13 million units by 2024; From 2025 to 2026, the shipment volume of AI PC machines will continue to maintain a double-digit annual growth rate, and AI PC is expected to become the mainstream product type in 2027.
IDC previously predicted that the installation ratio of AI PCs in the Chinese PC market will rapidly increase in the coming years, reaching 81% and becoming the mainstream of the PC market by 2027.
What are the investment directions?
Huatai Securities stated that from an application perspective, knowledge Q&A that connects to enterprise databases, cultural and graphic tools based on personal information, and personal assistants may become the first batch of AI PC applications; From a chip perspective, ARM chips with better support for AI applications may occupy an important share of over 20% globally in 2-3 years; From the perspective of PC brands, new applications and more chip suppliers will shorten replacement cycles and increase gross profit margins. Domestic PC industry chain investment, analysts from this institution suggest grasping the two main themes of AI PC development and ARM and localization——
(1) The driving force of AI PC on the industry, especially the industrial opportunities brought by the evolution of PC chips from x86 to ARM architecture, benefits the industry chain sectors including brand, structural components, storage, OEM, and system integration;
(2) The opportunity for the localization of the PC ecosystem benefits industries such as domestic CPU/GPU, domestic storage, domestic operating systems and software, and other domestic semiconductors.
Guotai Junan Wang Cong stated that the giants will be the first to deploy, and the leading position in the AI PC era will be further consolidated. Relevant supply chain enterprises will deeply benefit, including upstream chip, component, and ODM assembly enterprises of top PC brands.
Minsheng Securities suggests focusing on three sectors, namely the global PC brand leader: Lenovo Group; PC ODM manufacturers: Huaqin Technology, Wentai Technology; PC Semiconductor: Lanqi Technology, Tongfu Microelectronics, Demingli, Xiechuang Data, Xinhai Technology, Longxun Shares, and Lixin Micro; PC components: Hanbo High tech, Tonglian Precision, Shenghong Technology, Chunqiu Electronics, Everbright Tongchuang, Huichuangda, etc.