Meta Deploys Gen 2 MTIA AI Accelerator Chip in Data Centers

Meta’s next generation AI silicon is a 5nm chip designed to power the models that provide recommendations to those who use its social network platforms. The new MTIA inference accelerator is part of a “broader full-stack development program for custom, domain-specific silicon that addresses our unique workloads and systems,” Meta says. The next-gen MTIA more than doubles the compute and memory bandwidth of its predecessor, the 7nm MTIA v1 chip introduced in May 2023, resulting in 3x the performance, according to Meta, which says the new silicon is already live in 16 data centers. Continue reading Meta Deploys Gen 2 MTIA AI Accelerator Chip in Data Centers

Microsoft, OpenAI Considering a Supercomputer Data Center

Microsoft and OpenAI are contemplating an AI supercomputer data center that may cost as much as $100 billion. Called Stargate, the aim would be to have it operational by 2008 to drive OpenAI’s next generation of artificial intelligence. According to reports, the Stargate complex would span hundreds of U.S. acres and use up to 5 gigawatts of power, which is massive (the equivalent of a substantial metropolitan power grid). In light of those power needs, a nuclear power source is said to be under consideration. The project is not yet green-lit, and no U.S. location has been selected. Continue reading Microsoft, OpenAI Considering a Supercomputer Data Center

Amazon Increases Its Investment in Anthropic AI to $4 Billion

Amazon has added $2.75 billion to its initial September 2023 investment of $1.25 billion in Anthropic, completing its announced $4 billion stake in the artificial intelligence startup formed in 2021 by former members of OpenAI. As part of the resulting strategic collaboration, Anthropic’s most powerful models, including the Claude 3 series, are available on Amazon Bedrock, a service providing fully managed foundation models. Anthropic is using Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider and Amazon says Anthropic will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips “to build, train, and deploy its future models.” Continue reading Amazon Increases Its Investment in Anthropic AI to $4 Billion

Nvidia Revenue and Profits Soar on Strength of AI Chip Sales

Demand for artificial intelligence computer chips drove Nvidia income up 769 percent to nearly $12.3 billion for Q4, year-over-year, and 286 percent — to just over $29.7 billion — for the full-year fiscal 2024 frame that ended January 28. Revenue was $22.1 billion (+265 percent) and $60.9 billion (+126 percent) for the respective periods. Data center sales hit record highs of $18.4 billion for the quarter, up 409 percent from the previous year, $47.5 billion for the fiscal year, an increase of 217 percent. Gaming revenue was flat for Q4, at $2.9 billion, and up 115 percent for the year. Continue reading Nvidia Revenue and Profits Soar on Strength of AI Chip Sales

Cisco and Nvidia Team to Offer Help Developing In-House AI

Nvidia and Cisco Systems want to simplify the process of creating in-house AI computing infrastructure with a new joint service offering end-to-end artificial intelligence solutions that aim to allow any enterprise firm to host its own AI data center. Along with its own networking gear, Cisco will globally broker Nvidia AI software and GPU cloud products along with jointly configured “purpose-built Ethernet networking-based solutions.” European cloud services provider ClusterPower is an early customer, using the new offering “to help drive data center operations with innovative AI/ML solutions.” Continue reading Cisco and Nvidia Team to Offer Help Developing In-House AI

Intel, DigitalBridge Launch GenAI Software Firm for Enterprise

Intel has teamed with Florida-based investment firm DigitalBridge to launch Articul8, an independent company catering to the GenAI software needs of enterprise customers by offering secure, vertically-optimized full-stack solutions. Intel says the GenAI system can read text and images. It was reportedly developed by Intel to meet the security needs of Boston Consulting Group to run in its data centers, and later scaled for general enterprise use. Articul8 aims to keep customer data, training and inference “within the enterprise security perimeter,” Intel notes, adding that customers can choose between cloud, on-premise or hybrid deployment. Continue reading Intel, DigitalBridge Launch GenAI Software Firm for Enterprise

Intel Unveils AI-Driven Chips to Compete with Nvidia and AMD

Intel formally launched its new Core Ultra CPUs and related products this week at its AI Everywhere event. The company shared new solutions ranging from the data center to the cloud edge and PC. Intel’s new mobile processors are part of its Meteor Lake lineup, all of which will now bear the Ultra imprimatur instead of the “I,” promising greater power efficiency and performance. At the New York City event, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said “AI innovation is poised to raise the digital economy’s impact up to as much as one-third of global gross domestic product.” Continue reading Intel Unveils AI-Driven Chips to Compete with Nvidia and AMD

AMD’s New AI Chips Get Welcome Reception from Enterprise

AMD is coming to market with a new slate of chips optimized for artificial intelligence, including the AMD Instinct MI300 Series data center AI accelerators, ROCm 6 open software stack with new features for large language models, and Ryzen 8040 Series processors with Ryzen AI. The new offerings have received a welcome reception from customers including Microsoft, Oracle, Meta Platforms and Dell, among others that can benefit from building a strong network of suppliers of AI chips. The market is currently dominated by Nvidia, which is challenged to meet existing demand. Continue reading AMD’s New AI Chips Get Welcome Reception from Enterprise

Stability AI Intros Real-Time Text-to-Image Generation Model

Stability AI, developer of Stable Diffusion (one of the leading visual content generators, alongside Midjourney and DALL-E), has introduced SDXL Turbo — a new AI model that demonstrates more of the latent possibilities of the common diffusion generation approach: images that update in real time as the user’s prompt updates. This feature was always a possibility even with previous diffusion models given text and images are comprehended differently across linear time, but increased efficiency of generation algorithms and the steady accretion of GPUs and TPUs in a developer’s data center makes the experience more magical. Continue reading Stability AI Intros Real-Time Text-to-Image Generation Model

Nvidia Sales Surge as Rivals Circle and China Sanctions Loom

Nvidia logged another record quarter, with Q3 revenue of $18.12 billion, up 206 percent from a year ago and a 34 percent increase from Q2 that exceeded both its own and analyst projections. The surge, attributed to increasing demand for the chips that drive artificial intelligence, logged primarily under Nvidia’s data center results a record $14.51 billion, up 279 percent from the prior year and 41 percent from Q2. Profits swelled to $9.2 billion, a stunning 1,259 percent increase from 2022’s $680 million. The results for Nvidia’s Q3 were for the three-month period ending October 31. Continue reading Nvidia Sales Surge as Rivals Circle and China Sanctions Loom

Nvidia to Pursue Mobile and PC Markets with Arm Processors

Not content with dominating what is currently the hottest processor market in the world — chipsets for artificial intelligence — and leading among GPU suppliers, Nvidia is branching into CPUs. The 30-year-old company, whose market cap passed the $1 trillion mark in May, is said to be “quietly” developing chips to run Microsoft’s Windows OS, tapping into a global market that hovers at about 300 million PC sales per year, 70 percent of which use Windows, according to Statista. Nvidia is reportedly pursuing its plan via a licensing deal with Arm, whose tech powers 200 billion mobile processors shipped each year. Continue reading Nvidia to Pursue Mobile and PC Markets with Arm Processors

Intel Has Plans to Power AI with Glass Substrates for Its Chips

Intel has unveiled a new glass substrate technology that it says will “benefit our key players and foundry customers for decades to come.” The result of 10 years and $1 billion in development, the concept substitutes glass for the usual resin in which processors are embedded, enabling greater speed and the ability to accommodate the industry’s move toward packaging numerous “chiplets” into more powerful large processors, a configuration that has proven beneficial for the acceleration that drives artificial intelligence. This technology could potentially vault Intel ahead of competitors, some say. Continue reading Intel Has Plans to Power AI with Glass Substrates for Its Chips

Demand for AI Chips Drives Nvidia to Revenue Record in Q2

Nvidia announced Q2 revenue of $13.51 billion, a 101 percent year-over-year increase that sets a new company record. The data center division — which accounts for the majority of AI chip sales — also established a new benchmark: $10.32 billion in Q2, a 171 percent leap over the prior fiscal Q2. Nvidia projects that revenue for the current quarter will hit $16 billion — about $3.5 billion above analysts’ expectations. Nvidia chips power OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT and other generative AI and cloud computing apps from companies including Amazon, Google, Meta Platforms, Microsoft and VMWare. Continue reading Demand for AI Chips Drives Nvidia to Revenue Record in Q2

Microsoft Q2 Marks a Quarterly Sales Record of $56.2 Billion

Microsoft Cloud drove record sales and profits for Q2, which saw a year-over-year revenue gain of 8 percent to $56.2 billion for April through June. Net income topped $20 billion, a 20 percent gain that beat analyst expectations and the company’s own estimates. Microsoft Cloud revenue for Q2 was up 21 percent, to $30.3 billion. And the company is beginning to see the results of its investments in artificial intelligence. Q2 is Microsoft’s second record-setting quarter this year, topping the three-month high of $52.9 billion in Q1. The previous profit record was $18.8 billion in Q4 2021. Continue reading Microsoft Q2 Marks a Quarterly Sales Record of $56.2 Billion

Wing Cloud Develops Unified Open-Source Coding Language

There’s a new kind of cloud on the block, Wing Cloud, which features an open-source code called Winglang that drives cross-platform development across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Kubernetes, among others. Wing Cloud has emerged from stealth mode with $20 million in seed funding and offers “a new kind of abstract cloud” that “doesn’t involve data centers, machines or provisioning engines.” The software-based Wing Cloud visual layer is accessible through a general purpose computing model that operationally unifies infrastructure and application. Continue reading Wing Cloud Develops Unified Open-Source Coding Language