Nvidia announces new AI chips as market competition heats up

The Robin comes months after the March announcement of the upcoming Blackwell model, which is still in production and expected to ship to customers later in 2024.

Huang’s announcement of Robin appears to accelerate the company’s already rapid pace of developing AI chips.

Nvidia has pledged to launch new models of AI chips on a “one-year cadence,” Huang said on Sunday. The company was previously on a slower two-year chip update schedule.

The switch from Blackwell to Rubin took less than three months, underscoring the frenzy of competition in the AI ​​chip market and Nvidia’s race to maintain its dominant position.

AMD and Intel are two major competitors that are playing catch-up, although their gross margins lagged behind Nvidia’s in its most recent fiscal quarter. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are also vying for Nvidia’s top spot, even though they are also some of Nvidia’s biggest sponsors. A group of startups are also working to enter this field.

“Today, we are on the cusp of a major transformation in computing,” Huang said on Sunday. “Through our innovations in artificial intelligence and accelerated computing, we are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and driving the next wave of technological advancement.”

Rubin’s chipset platform will feature new GPUs, an important graphics processing technology that helps train and launch AI systems. It will come with other new features such as a central processor called “Vera,” although Sunday’s announcement did not provide many details.

Nvidia shares were relatively flat at market close on Friday with shares trading at $1,096.