DailyPost 2767
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) CHIP BATTLE?
As the world is getting transformed by the power of the AI chip, it also becomes imperative to understand both the tech and business of the companies who rule the roost in AI chips, the new contenders, might be a new AI chip regimen and what would be the contours of the road ahead. This trajectory would decide the future of AI and hence to a considerable degree the tech future of mankind. The company which has made an unprecedent surge with the opening of this market, or rather grew with Nvidia.8
They have benefited the maximum of the surge in demand of AI applications that started at the end of 2022. As large language models (LLMs) became the order of the day with the advent of ChatGPT, cloud computing giants lined up to get “Nvidia’s data center graphics processing units (GPUs) to train and power their LLMs. For world leaders in this field Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Amazon and many others *“Nvidia has been the go-to provider of AI chips.” They were ready to wait for even a year between order and delivery, paying hefty prices for it. Intel and AMD were left to bite the dust. Today Nvidia controls astonishingly 95% of the AI chip market.
Launched in 2020, A100 by Nvidia, it transformed the AI GPU market. This became the leader of high-performance computer applications. It was manufactured on a 7-nanometer process node. In 2021 AMD produced MI250X. Nivida’s A100 outperformed the newer AMD chip in LLM training tasks. In 2022 created another milestone in H100 processor; 80 billion transistors compared to 54 billion on the A100. AMD could produce the next competing chip only at the end of 2023, the MI300. Nvidia’s H100 drove $47.5 billion in data center revenue compared to $15 billion a year back.
In house AI chip development started in the stables of Nvidia’s customers as there were no potent alternatives to H100, its high pricing and thin availability. Meta announced the second generation of its own chip, built on 5nm mode. Something similar is happening in Microsoft. It revealed two custom AI chips towards the end of 2023. Amazon too has gone down the in-house chip development route. Why should Alphabet be left behind. It jumped onto this bandwagon with its newly revealed Axion custom processor. All these developments would be a matter of concern for Nvidia but the fact remains all the big names are expected to continue buying its powerful GPUs. When Nvidia announced the launch of next generation Blakwell AI GPU, all the above-mentioned companies said they would deploy these chips once they are available.
NVIDIA IS BOUND TO LEAD THE AI CHIP MARKET GIVEN IT’S HUGE TECH LEAD IN THIS FIELD.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.