JERUSALEM, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. leading chip manufacturer Intel Corporation has acquired Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) company Habana Labs for about 2 billion U.S. dollars, both companies announced Monday.

Habana Labs is an AI processor company founded in 2016 and headquartered in the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

After the acquisition, Habana will remain an independent business unit and will continue to be led by its current management team.

"The combination strengthens Intel's AI portfolio and accelerates its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon market, which Intel expects to exceed 25 billion dollars by 2024," Intel said.

"We are excited to partner with Intel to accelerate and scale our business. Together, we will deliver our customers more AI innovation," said David Dahan, CEO of Habana.

Intel Corporation, founded in 1968 and headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, is traded at Nasdaq with a market cap of about 254 billion dollars.