Nvidia asserts its “generation ahead” lead in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, even as whispers of potential rivals challenging its market supremacy and multi-trillion dollar valuation grow louder.
The chip giant’s shares declined on Tuesday after reports indicated Meta’s intention to invest billions in AI chips from Google for its data centers.
On X, Nvidia, the globe’s most valuable corporation, declared itself the sole platform capable of running “every AI model” across “every computing location”.
Google responded by affirming its dedication to “supporting both” its proprietary chips and those from Nvidia.
Nvidia’s chips are integral to powering the data centers that drive popular AI tools like ChatGPT.
Last October, it achieved the milestone of becoming the first company valued at an astonishing $5tn (£3.8tn).
In recent months, the US-based company has sought to broaden its influence, disclosing an October agreement to provide its cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chips to the South Korean government, Samsung, LG, and Hyundai.
Google offers AI developers access to its tensor processing units (TPUs) via Google Cloud.
Essentially, these chips are not sold commercially but are reserved for the tech giant’s internal data centers.
However, if recent reports suggesting potential discussions to sell its chips for external data centers prove accurate, it would signal a major shift.
This news led to a nearly 6% drop in Nvidia’s shares on Tuesday, while Alphabet, Google’s parent firm, saw its shares climb by almost the same margin.
Following the share decline, Nvidia took to X to assert that its chips still provide “greater performance” and “versatility” compared to Google’s offerings.
Over the last year, both Amazon and Microsoft have revealed their own AI chip development initiatives.
Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, informed the BBC’s Today programme that the potential Google-Meta deal was “healthy” for the market.
She noted, “Investment is surging into this sector”.
Adding, “Currently, Nvidia is the sole beneficiary seeing a true return on that investment”.