The computer chipmaker Intel has announced that it has acquired the Israel-based Habana Labs which is an Artificial Intelligence firm for around USD 2 billion.

The company said they have made this investment in order to strengthen its fast-growing data-center business.

With PC sales stagnating, the company has been increasingly been depending on its sales to data centers, which provides behind-the-scenes computing power for mobiles and web-based apps. Those apps rely on artificial intelligence for features like photo and speech recognition.

Navin Shenoy, General Manager, Intel data platforms group, said in a statement, ”More specifically, 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.”

Habana will, however, remain an independent business unit which is led by its current management team and will report to Intel’s data platforms group.