Gelsinger's comments came in an answer to Ahram Online's question on how Intel’s innovations can boost Africa's digital transformation amid severe global economic challenges.

The CEO was presenting at Intel Innovation 2023, a two-day event in San Francisco showcasing Intel's latest innovations and tech solutions for companies large and small.

“How these technological advancements help developing countries is super important. You know, a number of our education initiatives have been particularly well received. We have the AI for Youth program that we've driven broadly into international communities as well. We're having good adoption for learning those basic skills and [having youth] entering, or rather integrating with the modern technology workforce, independent of where they are,” Gelsinger added.

During the event, Intel revealed an upcoming wave of AI innovations for PCs and cloud computing.

In this respect, Intel unveiled the December launch dates for the new Core Ultra laptop processors and the fifth generation of Xeon Scalable processors, which will help both developers and businesses.

By then, Intel will usher in the age of the AI PC with its upcoming Intel Core Ultra processor, code-named Meteor Lake. This will be Intel’s first integrated neural processing unit for power-efficient AI acceleration and local inference on the PC.

It also unveiled a new commercial software platform dedicated to building, running and managing cutting-edge digital infrastructure and applications.

“We are working to broaden supply chains that many countries are saying, 'Well, okay, how can I bring more of those technologies and supply chains into our country or continent?' And I do think that Africa's been somewhat separated from that for the last couple of decades”, said Gelsinger.

“I'm actually quite hopeful that this will be a great decade for Africa," said the Intel CEO. "Like training initiatives and climate initiatives, I think all those things are important for the continent. Also, it is super important for all of us to be considering this next phase of technological inclusion. Because I really do believe these technologies can touch and improve the lives of every person on Earth. And that's what we're committed to doing as a company.”

During the event, Intel’s experts discussed what the company calls the “Siliconomy”; a newly coined expression that reflects AI's huge global economic potential.

In support of this burgeoning 'Siliconomy', Intel unveiled new technologies to make AI more accessible. This includes launching seamless access to AI cloud solutions, cheaper prices for Intel data centre AI accelerators, tens of millions of new AI-enabled Intel PCs shipping in 2024 and tools for securely powering cutting-edge AI deployments.

“AI requires a broad range of solutions developed with openness and security in mind to speed innovation. Intel’s portfolio of AI-enabling hardware and software – from CPUs, GPUs and accelerators to the oneAPI programming model, and OpenVINO developer toolkit and libraries that empower the AI ecosystem – provides competitive, high-performance, open-standards solutions for customers to quickly deploy AI at scale”, said Anil Rao, Intel’s Vice-President, Systems Architecture, Office of CTO.

Intel announced that AI has become the driving force across all of its hardware products.

“AI represents a generational shift, giving rise to a new era of global expansion where computing is even more foundational to a better future for all. For developers, this creates massive societal and business opportunities to push the boundaries of what’s possible, to create solutions to the world’s biggest challenges, and to improve the life of every person on the planet”, according to Gelsinger.