Oracle opens cloud to Google’s AI chips, challenging GPU dominance

Chennai Oracle will offer Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) through its cloud infrastructure platform from 2027, marking the first time the specialised AI accelerators will be available on a hyperscale cloud platform outside Google’s ecosystem. Announced at Oracle AI World in Las Vegas on October 27, the partnership will allow customers of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to access Google’s custom-designed AI chips alongside other computing architectures, expanding their options for training and deploying artificial intelligence models. TPUs are processors designed by Google to accelerate machine-learning workloads, including model training and inference — the process of running trained models. They offer an alternative to graphics processing units (GPUs), widely used for AI computing. “Different AI workloads have different compute needs,” said Mahesh Thiagarajan, president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Bringing Google TPUs to OCI gives customers access to multiple leading AI compute architectures in one cloud.