A Taco Bell fast-food restaurant and drive-thru at dusk in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Two chipmakers are teaming up.
Yum Brands is partnering with tech giant Nvidia to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in its restaurants.
The restaurant company, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, said on Tuesday that the collaboration will allow Yum to roll out AI order-taking, Nvidia-powered computer vision and restaurant performance assessments fueled by AI.
As tech giants compete in an AI arms race, restaurant companies have also been using the technology to stay ahead of rivals by improving their operations and saving money on labor. Fast-food chains have been testing AI to take drive-thru orders, check the accuracy of orders, decide how to schedule workers effectively and place supply orders.
Many restaurant chains besides Yum have sought partnerships with tech giants. McDonald’s teamed up with Google Cloud and Wendy’s supply chain co-op partnered with Palantir, among other deals. But not all partnerships have been successful. McDonald’s ended its collaboration with IBM on voice AI in June, although the burger giant said IBM remained a “trusted partner.”
The partnership is Nvidia’s first with a restaurant company. It also marks a shift in strategy for Yum, which has used a slew of acquisitions to build up its internal tech operations, now housed under its Byte platform. Yum will own the intelligence from the partnership, allowing the company to customize it as needed, like integrating more advanced AI models.
Yum has already been piloting Nvidia technology in some Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations. A broader rollout of the technology is expected to hit more than 500 restaurants across Yum’s portfolio during the second quarter.
The terms of the Nvidia partnership were not disclosed, but Yum said it was “subject to mutually agreeable definitive agreements.”
Shares of Nvidia have climbed 35% over the past year, while Yum’s stock has risen 14% during the same period. Investors have largely remained bullish on AI, although Nvidia’s stock has lost some steam over concerns about competition and the broader economy.
Nvidia’s market cap of $2.9 trillion dwarfs that of Yum, which has a market cap of $43.8 billion.
