Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, has announced more AI products after the $184 billion rally.
The CEO of Nvidia Corp. revealed during a two-hour presentation in Taiwan. Jensen Huang announced a new line of AI-related products and services looking to capitalize on the frenzy that has made his company the world’s most valuable chip maker.
The wide range includes a new bot system, game features, advertising services and web technology. Perhaps more important to his goals, Huang has blown the lid on an AI-powered supercomputer platform called the DGX GH200 that helps tech companies build a following for ChatGPT. Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. Google are expected to be among the first adopters.
“It’s too much,” said Huang, 60, at the end of his Computex keynote. “I know it’s too much.”
The series of announcements underscores Nvidia’s transformation from a maker of computer graphics chips to a company at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom. Last week, Huang issued a stellar sales forecast for the current quarter — nearly $4 billion more than analysts’ estimates — boosted by demand for data center chips that handle artificial intelligence tasks. That sent the stock to an all-time high and put Nvidia on the brink of a trillion-dollar valuation — a first in the chip industry.
Huang said in Monday’s presentation that the technology industry’s traditional architecture is no longer improving fast enough to keep up with complex computing tasks. To use AI’s full potential, customers are increasingly using high-speed computing and graphics processing units, or GPUs, such as those made by Nvidia.
“We have reached the tipping point of a new era of computing,” Huang said, walking briskly in his trademark leather jacket.
Huang also demonstrated the incredible capabilities of generative AI to take input in the form of words and then subtract other media. In one instance, he asked for music to match the early morning mood. In another, he compiled a handful of song lyrics and then used artificial intelligence to turn the idea into an upbeat pop tune.
He said, “Everyone is a creator now.”
Huang showed how Nvidia is partnering with WPP Plc to use artificial intelligence and the metaverse to lower ad production costs. It is launching an online service designed to speed up data flow in data centers. The company also plans to change the way people interact with video games: the Nvidia ACE for Games service uses artificial intelligence to bring background characters to life and give them more personality.
Huang also unveiled a new bot platform, which he said aims to help Nvidia expand beyond technology. For example, in heavy industry, he sees opportunities to use robots in factories and warehouses.
The DGX computer is another attempt to keep data center operators hooked on Nvidia products. Microsoft, Google and their peers are competing to develop similar services for OpenAI Inc.’s ChatGPT Chatbot. – This requires a lot of computing power. To satisfy this appetite, Nvidia supplies hardware to data centers and builds its own supercomputers for customers to use. The company said it will include two new supercomputers in Taiwan.
One of the biggest drawbacks of AI is the speed at which data moves through data centers. Nvidia’s Spectrum X, a networking system that uses technology acquired in its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, solves this problem. The company is building a data center in Israel to prove its efficiency.
Meanwhile, the WPP partnership simplifies ad content creation. The UK advertising giant is using Nvidia’s Omniverse technology to create a “virtual duplicate” of products that can be customized to personalize ads and avoid costly re-releases.
The original Nvidia company sold graphics cards to gamers, and they’ve returned to that world with the ACE offering. The service addresses the problem of non-playable characters or non-playable characters and background characters that populate video games. NPCs typically often provide answers through scripted dialogue, and this limited scope has made them the subject of mockery in memes and even the Ryan Reynolds movie “Free Guy.”
Nvidia ACE listens to what the player says to the character, converts it into text, and then drops it into the generated AI program to create a more natural response. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is currently testing the service and adding firewalls to ensure responses are not inappropriate or offensive.
