Chipset manufacturer Intel moved to boost its AI capabilities with a $2 billion acquisition of specialist silicon provider Habana Labs, a move the US company explained opens opportunities in the data centre space.

In a statement, the company described the AI chipset market as “nascent” and “fast growing”, predicting it would be worth more than $25 billion by 2024, of which more than $10 billion would be derived from data centres.

AI is proving to be an important part of Intel’s business, with the company expecting revenue from the sector to grow 20 per cent year-on-year to $3.5 billion this year.

Navin Shenoy, Intel EVP and data platforms group general manager, told Reuters Intel’s AI chips will be used in self-driving cars as well as training machine-learning algorithms in data centres.

Habana Labs will remain an independent company run by the same management team, reporting to Intel’s Data Platform Groups division.

The newly-acquired company has 120 members of staff spread across its Israel headquarters and offices in the US, China and Poland. In November, it announced it had secured a further $75 million in funding, taking the total sum raised to $120 million since being founded in 2016.