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, 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 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

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 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

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 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

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

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote at Computex Taipei marked the official launch of the company’s Grace Hopper Superchip, a breakthrough in accelerated processing, designed for giant-scale AI and high-performance computing applications. Huang also raised the curtain on Nvidia’s new supercomputer, the DGX GH200, which connects 256 Hopper chips into a single data-center-sized GPU with 144 terabytes of scalable shared memory to build massive AI models at the enterprise level. Google, Meta and Microsoft are among the first in line to gain access to the DGX GH200, positioned as “a blueprint for future hyperscale generative AI infrastructure.” Continue reading Nvidia Announces a Wide Range of AI Initiatives at Computex

Nvidia announced $7.19 billion in revenue for the first quarter ended April 30. That’s down 13 percent compared to the February through April frame in 2022, but up 19 percent from Q4, which ended January 29. Nvidia has forecast a stunning $11 billion in sales for Q2. That projected 64 percent increase puts Nvidia on track to be the first chip company with a $1 trillion valuation. CEO Jensen Huang attributes the sales spike to exploding demand for GPUs to run artificial intelligence systems. “We are significantly increasing our supply to meet surging demand for them,” Huang said of the processors. Continue reading AI Helps Steer Nvidia Toward $1 Trillion Market Capitalization

Meta Platforms has shared additional details on its next generation of AI infrastructure. The company has designed two custom silicon chips, including one for training and running AI models and eventually powering metaverse functions like virtual reality and augmented reality. Another chip is tailored to optimize video processing. Meta publicly discussed its internal chip development last week ahead of a Thursday virtual event on AI infrastructure. The company also showcased an AI-optimized data center design and talked about phase two of deployment of its 16,000 GPU supercomputer for AI research. Continue reading Meta In-House Chip Designs Include Processing for AI, Video

Neuroscientist and Intel’s chief technology officer of AI Amir Khosrowshahi revealed that he is remaining at Intel with a team of researchers building an innovative integrated circuit (IC). The IC under development will feature transistors that will, hope the researchers, function at voltages as low as 100 millivolts, a step towards matching voltage of communication in the brain. The existence of such an IC would unleash power-hungry AI applications targeting climate change, waste management and other global problems. Continue reading Intel Team Focuses on Low Voltage Transistor to Power AI

A virtual computer, loaded with personal data and preferences, and able to be used across devices with any screen size, with super-fast Internet, is still a dream of the future. French startup Blade has created Shadow, which offers a tantalizing taste of that virtual PC future, although reviewers suggest it still needs some fine-tuning. One reviewer tried out a Shadow PC with the performance of a $2,000 gaming PC, and was able to stream games in 4K, at high frame rates, with the promise of continuous (invisible) chip upgrades — all for $50 a month (or $35/month for a year’s subscription). Continue reading Blade Shadow: Reviewers Point to the Potential of Virtual PC

Google has revealed plans to build three underwater fiber-optic cables for ocean areas from the Pacific to the North Sea, in order to speed the transfer of data and catch up with Amazon and Microsoft. The new undersea cables are slated for completion by 2019 and will also allow Google to reroute data to servers around the globe to avoid an overloaded or failed region. Although the cables will cost a significant amount — “hundreds of millions of dollars” — Google believes the move is its only option to compete in cloud computing. Continue reading Google Plans Undersea Cables to Ramp Up its Cloud Business

Apple will open its first data center in southwest China, in response to a new Chinese law that requires companies to store data within its borders. The data center, which will be operated in partnership with a local data management company, is part of a $1 billion investment Apple will make in the Guizhou province. Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have built data centers in Germany, France and the Netherlands among other countries for technical reasons and in response to security concerns of governments and customers. Continue reading Apple to Open New Data Center in China With Local Partner