Intel shells out $2 billion to buy Israel’s Habana Labs

Abigail Klein Leichman

This is Intel’s second largest buyout in Israel, after its 2017 acquisition of Mobileye for $15.3 billion.

Habana Labs Chairman Avigdor Willenz at the company’s office in Caesarea, Israel. Photo by Eyal Toueg/Intel Corporation

Intel Corporation has acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for the data center, for approximately $2 billion.

Prior to this transaction, Intel Capital was an investor in Habana.

In a press statement, the multinational computing and communications technology giant said the acquisition “strengthens Intel’s artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio and accelerates its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon market, which Intel expects to be greater than $25 billion by 2024.”

Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group at Intel, said: “Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the data center with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI workloads.”

In 2019, Intel expects to generate over $3.5 billion in AI-driven revenue, up more than 20 percent year-over-year.

Habana, based in Caesarea, will remain in Israel as an independent business unit led by its current management team. Habana will report to Intel’s Data Platforms Group. The company’s chairman, Avigdor Willenz, will serve as a senior adviser to the business unit and to Intel.

Intel, which employs about 12,800 Israelis in five locations, is the most active foreign corporate investor in Israel. In addition to investing $435 million in more than 90 Israeli companies through 2018, Intel acquired Jerusalem-based Mobileye in 2017 for $15.3 billion. It is also building an $11 billion production plant in Kiryat Gat.