An Nvidia chip is photographed in Paris on February 23, 2024 (AFP / JOEL SAGET)
American semiconductor specialist Nvidia on Monday unveiled its latest models of electronic chips aimed at supporting the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, of which it seeks to strengthen its position as a critical supplier.
“We need a bigger GPU. So, ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce you to a very big GPU,” announced group head Jensen Huang during a conference for developers.
GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are chips with much more computing power than traditional microprocessors (CPUs).
“I hope you understand that this is not a concert, it’s a conference for developers,” Mr. Huang joked as he took the stage at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, the 18,000-seat venue that usually hosts ice hockey matches and concerts. is
The event, dubbed the “Woodstock of AI” by Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, has become a must-see on the calendars of major new technology players thanks to Nvidia’s unique role in the AI revolution the world has come to know. ChatGPT in late 2022.
Nvidia’s powerful GPU chips and its software are one of the key components of generative AI.
Its rivals, such as Intel and AMD, are still struggling to match the power and efficiency of its flagship product, the H100, introduced in 2022.
Apple, Microsoft and Amazon have also developed chips with AI in mind but, for now, are forced to use Nvidia’s products to deliver on their AI promises.
– stock market peak –
This leading position has driven Nvidia’s stock to stock market highs, up nearly +250% in a year and +80% since the start of 2024.
The Santa Clara Group has overtaken Amazon in terms of market capitalization, trailing behind Microsoft and Apple.
On February 23, it also crossed the symbolic threshold of $2,000 billion in valuation, a height known only to Microsoft, Apple and oil giant Saudi Aramco.
But Nvidia does not intend to stop there and on Monday announced the introduction of a more powerful processor with ad hoc software on a platform called “Blackwell”. In tribute to David Blackwell, the first black academic to join the National Academy of Sciences.
Blackwell GPUs must provide “superchips” for AI, four times faster than the previous generation used to train current AI models, according to Nvidia.
“The rate of progress in computing is insane,” said Mr. Huang, whose group originally focused on video game graphics.
The group also claims that its “superchips” will be 25 times more efficient in terms of energy efficiency.
A key element because AI is heavily criticized for consuming too much electricity compared to traditional systems.
Unlike its rivals Intel, Micron and Texas Instruments, Nvidia – like AMD – does not produce its own semiconductors but uses subcontractors such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC).
This could be a weak point, given the geopolitical tensions between Taiwan and mainland China, and the United States banning Nvidia from supplying its most efficient chips to Chinese companies.
– Gr00t –
Nvidia announced other innovations in the field of artificial intelligence on Monday.
The Gr00t project — whose name is not inspired by a “Guardians of the Galaxy” character, assures Nvidia — is described as “the world’s first human-based model.”
Robots equipped with Gr00t will be designed to understand what people say and imitate their movements, learning from their own experience about how to interact with the world, Nvidia says.
These models will “allow the robot to learn from a few human demonstrations so that it can help with daily tasks and reproduce human gestures just by observing us,” the group continues.
Nvidia is collaborating with Apple to equip the firm’s virtual reality headset, Vision Pro, with AI, which has been on the market since early February. The collaboration comes at a time when Apple is under pressure to prove that it is not ahead of Amazon, Google, Meta and OpenAI when it comes to AI.
Additionally, Nvidia unveiled Earth-2 Cloud, a platform for predicting climate change using simulations generated by AI supercomputers.
