ADVERTISEMENT

IBM Invests $2 Billion in New York Research Hub for AI

IBM also plans to expand and extend its partnership with SUNY Poly for the Center for Semiconductor Research.

IBM Invests $2 Billion in New York Research Hub for AI
A logo sits illuminated on the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Watson cognitive computing platform Internet of Things (IoT) center, at the IoT center in Munich, Germany. (Photographer: Andreas Arnold/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- IBM is plowing $2 billion into a new artificial intelligence research hub in New York as part of its efforts to boost growth from emerging technologies.

The AI Hardware Center at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Albany, New York, will focus on computer-chip research, development, prototyping, testing and simulation, IBM said in a statement Thursday. Governor Andrew Cuomo was on site to announce the investment, in partnership with New York State, and said the center would attract new companies in the AI field and federal research and create several hundred new jobs.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform how we live and how businesses operate, and this partnership with IBM will help ensure New York continues to be on the cutting edge developing innovative technologies," Cuomo said in a statement.

International Business Machines Corp., based in Armonk, New York, has been pushing into fast-growing new technologies, like AI, cloud-computing platforms and analytics to spur growth and shift away from legacy businesses such as mainframe computers. IBM lags Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. in the cloud, where many AI applications are accessed.

IBM also plans to expand and extend its partnership with SUNY Poly for the Center for Semiconductor Research, which is set to expire at the end of 2021.

To contact the reporter on this story: Olivia Carville in New York at ocarville1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.