Which Google Cloud infrastructure concept is designed for extreme-scale AI training?

The concept designed specifically for extreme-scale AI training within Google Cloud is the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). TPUs are custom-built application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that are optimized for machine learning tasks. Unlike general-purpose hardware, TPUs provide the computational efficiency needed to handle large datasets and complex model architectures, making them ideal for extensive AI training processes.

Using TPUs allows developers and data scientists to accelerate their machine learning workflows significantly. Their architecture is specifically designed to support operations commonly used in training neural networks, such as matrix multiplications and convolutions, enabling faster and more efficient processing compared to traditional CPUs or even GPUs in some scenarios.

While AI Hypercomputer and High-Performance Computing (HPC) Clusters can also contribute to demanding computation tasks, they are not as specialized for AI training at scale as TPUs. The Cloud Machine Learning Engine, now part of Vertex AI, is a platform for deploying models rather than a specific infrastructure designed for training at extreme scales.