Google unveils two new AI chips, one built to keep data private

Google has unveiled two new chips for artificial intelligence. The one to know about is TPU 8tx, which Google designed with AMD to keep sensitive data and AI models protected while they are in use. The other is TPU 8i Max, which packs far more memory. Google announced both on Monday.

What the chips do

TPUs are chips Google designs itself for AI work. Both new ones belong to its eighth generation, first introduced in April. Google says TPU 8tx builds security into the hardware, keeping data and model weights isolated even during active use. It can also train small models on the fly, which could let a company train on its own data without moving that data between devices.

TPU 8i Max joins two of the April TPU 8i chips in one package. That doubles memory, processing power and bandwidth. The result is a chip that lets AI models handle a larger range of information during queries.

Why Google is doing this

Google wants to depend less on chips made by other companies for its cloud business. It is not alone. Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic are also working on their own AI chips, in part to rely less on Nvidia.

What is not known yet

The material does not say when customers can use the chips, what they will cost, or how they perform against rivals. The privacy protection comes from Google's own description, and no outside testing is mentioned.