JERUSALEM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. technology giant Nvidia will open an artificial intelligence (AI) center in Israel, Nvidia's chief scientist Bill Dally said on Thursday.

Dally said at a conference held by the company at the coastal city of Tel Aviv that "despite being a small country, Israel is a huge force in the artificial intelligence industry. I am amazed every time by the quality of the research, the researchers, and the hunger in the market for new ideas."

Founded in 1993, Nvidia is the leader in the graphics processor market for video and gaming industry. In recent years, it has deepened its activities in the areas of artificial intelligence and deep learning.

The company's capabilities are based on the strong processing power of its chips. According to Nvidia, its processors control about 90 percent of the world's market.

About a year ago, Nvidia launched a development center in Israel that employs a few dozen employees and is expected to recruit another 20 over the next year.

However, most of the company's activity in Israel focuses on collaborations with 150 local start-ups, which it provides access to its services, consulting services and in rare cases invests in them.

The new research center in Tel Aviv will be managed by Prof. Gal Chechik, member of the Brain Research Center at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, and former senior scientist at Google Brain deep learning AI research team.

As part of this process, the company is currently recruiting 10 Israeli experts in the field.