rolvram
6 hours ago
Nvidia unveils flagship AI chip, the B200, aiming to extend dominance
6:11 PM ET, 03/18/2024 - Reuters
(Adds software announcement, analyst comments, updates shares, paragraphs 1-3, 7-8, 12-13, 15)
By Max A. Cherney and Stephen Nellis
SAN JOSE, California, March 18 (Reuters) - A rtificial-intelligence semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia on Monday unveiled a flagship AI chip, the Blackwell B200, saying it is up to 30 times speedier than its previous chip.
Chief Executive Jensen Huang, kicking off the company's annual developer conference, also launched a new set of software tools designed to help developers sell their artificial-intelligence models more easily to any company that uses Nvidia. Nvidia's chip and software announcements at GTC 2024 will help determine whether the company can maintain its leadership position as the dominant seller of AI equipment. Nvidia had a roughly 80% share of the data center AI chip market last year.
"I hope you realize this is not a concert," Huang, wearing his trademark black leather jacket, said after taking the stage, in a nod to the rising profile of his company.
The B200 takes two chips the size of Nvidia's previous offering and binds them together into a single chip.
The new chip has 208 billion transistors, more than double the 80 billion on the company's previous chip. All of those transistors can access the memory attached to the chip at nearly the same time, improving productivity.
Tom Plumb, CEO and portfolio manager at Plumb Funds, which has Nvidia as one of its largest holdings, said the Blackwell chip was not a surprise.
"But it reinforces that this company is still at the cutting edge and the leader in all graphics processing. That doesn't mean the market is not going to be big enough for AMD and others to come in. But it shows that their lead is pretty insurmountable," said Plumb.
Insider Intelligence analyst Jacob Bourne said Nvidia could solidify its AI dominance. "However, rivals like AMD, Intel, startups, and even Big Tech's own chip aspirations threaten to chip away at Nvidia's market share, particularly among cost-conscious enterprise customers," he said.
Nvidia said major customers, including Amazon.com, Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft , OpenAI, Oracle and Tesla, are expected to use the new chip.
Nvidia also is shifting from selling single chips to selling total systems. Its latest iteration houses 72 of its AI chips, 36 central processors and contains 600,000 parts and weighs 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg).
Though Nvidia is widely regarded as a chip designer, the company has built a significant battery of software products as well.
The new software tools, called microservices, improve system efficiency across a wide variety of uses, making it easier for a business to incorporate an AI model into its work, just as a good computer operating system can help apps work well.
Nvidia's shares have surged 240% over the past 12 months, making Nvidia the U.S. stock market's third-most valuable company, behind only Microsoft and Apple.
Nvidia stock dipped 1% in extended trade on Monday, while Super Micro Computer, which makes AI-optimized servers with Nvidia's chips, fell 4%. Advanced Micro Devices stock dipped nearly 3% during Huang's keynote address.
Its stellar 12-month rally leaves Nvidia's stock at risk of plummeting back to earth if the Santa Clara, California, company fails to expand its AI business as much as investors expect.
Nvidia's market share is expected to drop several percentage points in 2024 as new products from rivals such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices hit the market.
Huang spoke at a Silicon Valley hockey arena to accommodate its largest crowd for its annual conference.
Huang also announced partnerships with design software companies Ansys, Cadence and Synopsys . Shares of the three companies jumped around 3% in extended trade following Huang's comments.
cadillacdave
3 days ago
I have a feeling they will try to pull this down or keep it down on Monday. Then it shoots up after hours. The remainder of the month may depend on what trajectory is laid out at the GTC.
April may be a slow growth month.
May should see some more upward trend, as earnings should be reported again.
No doubt, one can make $$ trading this. However, a buy and hold strategy, after a dip, will likely yield nice gains, as this will be higher, almost every month.
Moonlazer
3 days ago
Thanks bud. There's a video on Nvindar, the guy responsible for that flash crash in 2010. I still remember watching the news the day that happened and no one knew why. I thought to myself, short sell manipulation to the extreme?! Hackers hit the market?
But he's a case example of unseen elements, spoofing the bid ask to bait algorithms way off track. Fundamentals can be sound. I use those for the broad structure of the market: uptrend, downtrend, range- sideways. And quarterly, if not semi annual shifts. Trend lines that end up looking like spiderwebs with multiple "possibility zones." The low of this week was a big pivot for a lot of my lines for this week.
The big picture feeds the smaller picture, where watching prior support and resistance from weeks past as hard lines in the sand, last minute's resistance becoming this minute's support or the inverse. If y is crossed, but not x, maybe it'll reach z. But if x is crossed, I expect it to hit w more than I expect it to hit z. It it hits z, it's very more likely to hit w than go further above z. Planning exits before entries. Aspergers superpower I guess.
Fundamentals are great for the long term. Absolutely. They have staying power through crashes. Crashes are more geared to short term play. Yeah longs take a hit, but March 13th-15th 2021 is just a blip compared to 08, and dotcom. Longs from 1995 just blink at it and go: ok.... and?
Day trading to me is 9% preparation 1% execution and 90% temperance. Fail to plan, plan to fail. If you disregard the plan, why plan at all? It's fun, but the worst part is enduring when you're wrong and how fast one can react to changing atmosphere when they are. The perma bull-bear will always have horrible market days.
cadillacdave
3 days ago
These days the markets are not as simple and straightforward. There are many factors that impact the market, seen and unseen.
No doubt geo political forces, wars, pandemics, courts, public sentiment and many other factors impact a stock.
However, there is also a lot of manipulation behind the scenes, from various sources. Knowing what those are, their motivations and agenda is quite helpful. These are the factors that don't make it into the charts, yet may have the greatest effect on a stock.
JJ8
3 days ago
I find it interesting how you manage (observe/follow/act) in keeping up with the many events, market activities (SPY, etc.), geo-political happenings of the times. I happen to be trying to do the least work finding T/A mainly being the shortcut for me, lol. In the same way I did manage to graduate in Civil Engineering doing my least, lol... only after securing the best scholarship (USAID). .
What impressed me was the 80's Guru Technician Joe Granville (he created the OBV Indicator), the Analysis of the Volume Complex of the DOW 30. That suited my lazy approach. He stressed not to mix Fundamentals with T/A. That would be like he said "mixing the fuel with water". And if you do that, your engine won't work. He pointed out that all are reflected in the price and volume of the stock already. Joe had great following in the early 80's. Thousands came to his seminar shows. Eventually he blundered big... just before the market started it's historic rise close to mid 80's. I used to attend almost every seminar that was an educational and an entertaining show. I still use his main book as reference besides others. Eagerly looked forward for his Weekly newsletter. Often it quoted also from the Bible, lol.
However, decades later, I learned that for success in trading one needs to do more and be more. Knowing of what impacts the markets, Fed activities and plans regarding the interest rate, inflation and how it all falls in time and how markets respond. Furthermore, political news events of importance domestically and worldwide impact the markets such as elections, pandemics, wars, etc.
GLTY & GLTA