We take a look at the future of AI and the central role that Nvidia has staked out for its future growth plans.
There has been a feeding frenzy around artificial intelligence – fueled by the breathtaking capabilities of OpenAI’s large language model-powered ChatGPT software.” — Formaspace
AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, March 28, 2023: Is It The Best Of Times Or The Worst Of Times?
Silicon Valley is dead… true or false?
We’ve seen this storyline before, indeed, there is a long history of pundits issuing premature epitaphs lamenting “the end” of the most innovative tech center of the world.
Some say, “this time is different,” pointing to the big layoffs at META, Amazon, and other tech companies, plus the unexpected bank failure at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the financial heart of countless innovative tech startups.
Nvidia has not been insulated from these troubled waters, having seen its share of major business challenges during the past few years:
- In 2019, Tesla turned away from its longstanding partnership with Nvidia, electing to develop its own D1 chip hardware for use in its Doju supercomputer and autonomous driving program.
- During the pandemic, demand by bitcoin miners drove up the price of its graphics cards, infuriating PC gamers. Then the bitcoin mining market collapsed, leading to a sudden glut of Nvidia GFX cards.
- The US Federal Government banned Nvidia and other American companies from selling AI chips to China, cutting Nvidia off from a lucrative, booming Chinese automotive market.
- Major investments in Nvidia’s Omniverse (their “metaverse” initiative) haven’t lived up to the hype as mainstream users continue to balk at adopting expensive and often cumbersome virtual reality headsets.
Silicon Valley Slump? AI To The Rescue!
If Silicon Valley is famous for anything, it’s “The Pivot.”
Business plan not panning out? It’s time to pivot and change direction.
Indeed, in recent weeks, there has been a feeding frenzy around artificial intelligence (reminiscent of the dot-com boom of the turn of the century) – fueled by the breathtaking capabilities of OpenAI’s large language model-powered ChatGPT software.
In response, just about every Silicon Valley tech company is pivoting its business plan to take advantage of this new AI, with many non-tech companies (viz Coca-Cola) also seeking to bolt on a “generative AI” component to their business storyline.
This is good news for Nvidia Co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, who has been championing long-term strategic investments in artificial intelligence and is now riding a wave of enthusiasm for the company (and its stock, which has more than doubled in price since October 2022).
What Caught Our Eye At The Nvidia GTC Developer Conference
In our view, three broad major initiatives stood out at the Nvidia GTC Developer Conference.
The Rise Of Digital Twins, Including Autonomous Vehicles
The first initiative is the rise of Digital Twins, which is poised to be the breakout application for Nvidia’s Omniverse investment initiatives.
Here, Nvidia is striking directly at the lucrative enterprise market rather than taking on the indirect competitors in the gaming entertainment space (such as Fortnight/Unreal and Roblox).
Huang promoted the idea of using Nvidia Omiverse technology to create digital twins of factories, such as a new BMW automobile manufacturing facility.
Robotic assembly and material handling operations can be simulated and tested before entering into service using the Nvidia Isaac SIM software application. Here, the lighthouse customer is none other than Amazon, which used the new software stack to develop a fully-autonomous warehouse robot.
In a sign of how serious Nvidia is taking the enterprise market, it announced several new cloud initiatives, starting with the Omniverse Cloud, a partnership with Microsoft (powered by the Azure Cloud), which Huang said will provide access using Nvidia technology to Microsoft’s huge userbase.
Perhaps controversially, we include autonomous driving in the Digital Twins category, thanks to its inherent ability to extract complex 3D models of real-world physical environments – to make real-time, life-or-death decisions.
