Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More. Google Cloud unveiled its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) called Ironwood on Wednesday, a custom AI accelerator that the company claims delivers more than 24 times the computing power of the world’s fastest supercomputer when deployed at scale.The new chip, announced at Google Cloud Next ’25, represents a significant pivot in Google’s decade-long AI chip development strategy. While previous generations of TPUs were designed primarily for both training and inference workloads, Ironwood is the first purpose-built specifically for inference — the process of deploying trained AI models to make predictions or generate responses.“Ironwood is built to support this next phase of generative AI and its tremendous computational and communication requirements,” said Amin Vahdat, Google’s Vice President and General Manager of ML, Systems, and Cloud AI, in a virtual press conference ahead of the event. “This is what we call the ‘age of inference’ where AI agents will proactively retrieve and generate data to collaboratively deliver insights and answers, not just data.”Shattering computational barriers: Inside Ironwood’s 42.5 exaflops of AI muscleThe technical specifications of Ironwood are striking. When scaled to 9,216 chips per pod, Ironwood delivers 42.5 exaflops of computing power — dwarfing El Capitan‘s 1.7 exaflops, currently the world’s fastest supercomputer

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More. Google Cloud is making an aggressive play to solidify its position in the increasingly competitive artificial intelligence landscape, announcing a sweeping array of new technologies focused on “thinking models,” agent ecosystems, and specialized infrastructure designed specifically for large-scale AI deployments.At its annual Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas today, Google revealed its seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) called Ironwood, which the company claims delivers more than 42 exaflops of computing power per pod — a staggering 24 times more powerful than the world’s leading supercomputer, El Capitan.“The opportunity with AI is as big as it gets,” said Amin Vahdat, Google’s vice president and general manager of ML systems and cloud AI, during a press conference ahead of the event. “Together with our customers, we’re powering a new golden age of innovation.”The conference comes at a pivotal moment for Google, which has seen considerable momentum in its cloud business. In January, the company reported that its Q4 2024 cloud revenue reached $12 billion, a 30% increase year over year. Google executives say active users in AI Studio and the Gemini API have increased by 80% in just the past month.How Google’s new Ironwood TPUs are transforming AI computing with power efficiencyGoogle is positioning itself as the only major cloud provider with a “fully AI-optimized platform” built from the ground up for what it calls “the age of inference” — where the focus shifts from model training to actually using AI systems to solve real-world problems.The star of Google’s infrastructure announcements is Ironwood, which represents a fundamental shift in chip design philosophy

Google has removed the head of Gemini as its AI chatbot continues to lag behind ChatGPT. According to Semafor, Sissie Hsiao has stepped down to be replaced by Josh Woodward, the head of Google Labs who oversaw the launch of NotebookLM, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool that turns documents into two-person podcasts. Google DeepMind CEO [] The post Google Replaces Gemini Head After Lagging AI Performance appeared first on PYMNTS.com.