Intel CEO-Backed Startup Seeks Role as an AI Chip Matchmaker

A startup backed by Intel Corp.’s CEO is building software that can carve up artificial intelligence tasks and send them to different kinds of chips, aiming to streamline an expensive and computing-intensive process.

Gimlet Labs is positioning itself as the VMware of the AI era. That company’s technology, which caught on in the 2000s, allowed servers to cost-effectively handle workloads by using the machines more efficiently.

With AI computing, most systems run on Nvidia Corp. graphics processors, which are in short supply. Despite the scarcity of the chips, they’re often underutilized and handle tasks that don’t require so much horsepower, the startup says. Gimlet’s software decides ...