Google Launches TPU v5p ’Ironwood’ Chip in AI Infrastructure Push

Google has unveiled its TPU v5p 'Ironwood' chip, marking a direct challenge to Nvidia's dominance in AI hardware. The announcement, made on Thursday, signals Google's aggressive push to join the top tier of AI infrastructure providers. Originally launched in April for testing, Ironwood is now fully operational, designed to handle everything from training massive AI models to powering real-time chatbots.

The in-house developed chip connects up to 9,216 TPUs per pod, addressing data bottlenecks for demanding AI workloads. Google claims Ironwood offers superior pricing, performance, and energy efficiency compared to conventional GPUs. Early adopters include AI startup Anthropic, which plans to deploy up to 1 million TPUs for its Claude model.

This launch intensifies the battle among tech giants, with Google now squarely competing with Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta in the AI hardware space. The TPU v5p represents the culmination of a decade-long investment, boasting speeds four times faster than its predecessor.