Shares of US semiconductor giant Nvidia Corp. edged higher as the company’s new artificial intelligence chips (AI), Blackwell, are likely to ship later this year, and Chief Executive Jensen Huang plans to spend $250 billion a year on data center equipment.
The Santa Clara-based chipmaker’s stock gained almost 2.0% to $901 following investors’ interviews with Huang and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress at the firm’s annual GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose. The shares eased in the after-hours, trading 0.4% lower at $890.
In the last 12 months, the AI darling’s shares have increased more than threefold, allowing the company to place third in the US stock market’s list of most valuable companies.
Analysts, however, estimated a downturn of several percentage points for Nvidia’s market share in 2024 as rivals introduce new products and its major clients develop their own chips. Still, its dominance is seen staying.
Blackwell 2024 Ship, Nvidia Expects $250B Data Center Spend
Nvidia on Monday launched the Blackwell AI graphics processors aimed at reinforcing its lead in the AI space further.
The new chips feature speed that Nvidia described as significantly faster at training and running AI models. The B200, which is twice the size of the firm’s prior offerings, can allegedly handle certain tasks at 30 times the speed of its predecessor.
Blackwell will be included in larger computing systems, according to Huang, and prices for the chip will vary depending on the value they will be able to bring.
Nvidia has also sought the help of the world’s no.1 chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Ltd., to avoid potential delays in packaging the chips, which hindered shipments of the H20 AI chips.
Kress said they expect Blackwell to be available in the market some time this year.
Furthermore, Huang anticipates that over $250 billion will be allocated annually to improving data center gear with accelerated computing components, one of the firm’s areas of expertise.
Huang stated that the data center market is expanding by about 25% per year. He expects his AI darling company to obtain a larger share than other semiconductor groups by selling entire systems rather than only offering individual chips.
In addition to Blackwell, the firm released NIM at the conference, which is a software platform designed to simplify the distribution of custom AI models to companies using the product.
