Nvidia is positioning itself to be at the forefront of the generative AI race in 2024, having announced its latest Blackwell B200 chip at its annual developer conference on Tuesday.
The GPU architecture is making a stir across several industries, including computing, data, finance, telecommunications, and automotive, among others. Nvidia is calling its new component the world’s most powerful chip for AI, having detailed that the Blackwell B200 is capable of performing tasks 30 times the rate of its 2023 predecessor, the Hopper H100 chip while conserving 25 times the energy.
The Blackwell B200 chip includes 208 billion transistors, in comparison to the 80 billion transistors in the Hopper H100 chip. Notably, the chips are named after respected figures in the math and science industries. The former, mathematician David Blackwell, the first Black scholar inducted into the National Academy of Sciences. The latter computer scientist Grace Hopper, who developed early programming languages still used today.
Nvidia has plans to partner with Amazon Web Services on a supercomputer called Project Ceiba that will be powered by the Blackwell B200 chip, according to PCMag. Previously announced in November 2023, the partners upgraded the machine with the new component, which will now provide a six times greater performance increase than supercomputers already on the market. Project Ceiba’s launch plans are still unclear, however, the supercomputer is set to be used for various research and development applications including AI graphics and simulation, digital biology, robotics, self-driving cars, climate prediction, and more, Nvidia said in a statement.
Other companies partnering with the brand to use the Blackwell B200 chip include Meta Platforms, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Dell Technologies, Oracle, xAI, and Tesla.
Many of these partners will begin releasing products featuring the Blackwell chip later this year; however, not all brands are on the same timeline. A Meta (formerly Facebook) spokesperson told Reuters that Meta Platforms will likely not receive its first shipments of the Blackwell chip within the year for developing AI products. Following up on this claim, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer, Colette Kress told financial analysts while the new chip is set to be released in 2024, its shipment volume likely won’t increase until much later in the following year.
