Google is expanding its footprint in Israel by forming a new engineering team dedicated to creating artificial intelligence chips specifically designed for robots, autonomous systems, and other edge devices. This strategic move is aimed at enhancing the capabilities of AI applications to run directly on devices, reducing reliance on cloud computing.
The tech giant has appointed Guy Kaminitz, a former R&D executive at Israeli AI chipmaker Hailo, to spearhead this initiative as the head of silicon engineering. Google is actively recruiting dozens of engineers for various roles, including chip validation, physical design, verification, automation, and machine-learning hardware architecture, to support this effort.
The focus of the new engineering team will be on developing Edge AI processors. These processors are crucial for enabling AI functionalities in a wide range of applications such as robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, industrial systems, and smart cameras. By processing AI tasks locally on the device, these chips can enhance performance and efficiency in connected devices.
Google’s expansion into chip design and development in Israel began in 2021, building on the company’s longstanding research and development presence in the country since 2005. The Israeli teams have been instrumental in advancing Google’s work in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and machine perception.