Apparatus and method for a masked multiply instruction to support neural network pruning operations

An apparatus and method for a masked multiply instruction to support neural network pruning operations. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: a decoder to decode a matrix multiplication with masking (GEMM) instruction identifying a destination matrix register to store a result, and source registers storing an A-matrix, a B-matrix, and a matrix mask; execution circuitry to execute the GEMM instruction, the execution circuitry to multiply a plurality of B-matrix elements with a plurality of A-matrix elements, each of the B-matrix elements associated with a mask value in the matrix mask, wherein if the mask value is set to a first value, then the execution circuitry is to multiply the B-matrix element with one or more of the A-matrix elements to generate a first partial result, and if the mask value is set to a second value, then the execution circuitry is to multiply an alternate B-matrix element with a one or more of the A-matrix elements to generate a second partial result.