Hugging Face released Optimum Intel v2.0.0, a major update that fully embraces OpenVINO as the Intel inference backend. The release supports Gemma 4, Qwen3.5-MoE, the entire Mamba family, and several other architectures, with 2-3× speedup over the previous version.
The "all-in on OpenVINO" pivot: previous versions of Optimum Intel supported both OpenVINO and other backends (IPEX, ONNX Runtime). v2.0.0 drops the other backends and commits fully to OpenVINO, citing better performance, better hardware support, and better long-term maintainability.
The benchmark: on Intel Gaudi 3 and Intel Max 1550, Optimum Intel v2.0.0 hits 2-3× the inference speed of v1.x. The biggest improvement is on MoE models (Qwen3.5-MoE), where the expert-routing optimization gives a 3.5× speedup. The Mamba family (which uses SSM instead of attention) also benefits significantly, hitting 2.8× speedup.
The "Intel inference stack" highlight: the release positions Intel as a serious player in the LLM inference market. Combined with the recent xpu-kernels Skill, Intel now has a complete LLM inference stack: hardware (Gaudi, Max), software (OpenVINO), and tools (Optimum Intel, xpu-kernels). This is a direct challenge to NVIDIA's dominance.
The bigger takeaway: "Intel as an AI inference vendor" is a real possibility. The "Intel is behind in AI" narrative is outdated for inference workloads, and the combination of Gaudi 3, OpenVINO, and Optimum Intel is competitive with NVIDIA H100 + TensorRT for many workloads. For enterprises looking to diversify their GPU supply chain, Intel is now a viable option.