SAN FRANCISCO— Intel Corp. to intensify its efforts in a hot new computing market, is taking the unusual step of relying on technology developed by a startup it acquired.

The chip maker, determined to counter rival Nvidia Corp.’s lead in the field known as deep learning, said it would begin shipping chips in 2017 that it acquired through its purchase earlier this year of startup Nervana Systems. Intel said it plans to integrate Nervana chips and software with its general-purpose Xeon microprocessors, which are used in most corporate data centers.

Deep learning is a fast-growing branch of the broader field called artificial intelligence, which refers to systems that train themselves by analyzing large sets of data rather than being programmed in conventional ways. Companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are widely using deep-learning techniques to improve computers’ ability to identify speech and objects in images, among other tasks.

Many companies now carry out those chores using a combination of Intel Xeon chips and Nvidia chips called GPUs, for graphics processing units. Intel, though it didn’t mention Nvidia by name, said it expects the Nervana technology will allow it to train deep-learning systems 100 times faster than with a GPU.

“The GPU architecture does not have a unique advantage for AI,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel’s chief executive, at a San Francisco gathering focused on the technology. “It’s not the only solution that is out there.”