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Silicon Valley Notes | Global Technology Companies Accelerating Layout of AI Chips

2024-03-21   

On the 18th, American chip company Nvidia unveiled its latest high-performance graphics processor (GPU) B200 based on the Blackwell architecture, which can be applied in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), at a developer conference held in San Jose, California. Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun stated that the artificial intelligence chip launched this time is "the engine driving this new industrial revolution.". It is reported that the B200 integrates 208 billion transistors, which is 2.6 times faster than the previous generation chip's 80 billion transistors. When processing tasks such as providing answers to chatbots, the B200 chip is 30 times faster than the previous generation chip. Technology giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google will be the first users of Blackwell's architecture chip products. Starting from the launch of the phenomenon level generative artificial intelligence product ChatGPT by the Open AI Research Center in the United States, major technology companies in the United States have focused on the field of generative artificial intelligence, driving a new wave of explosive development in artificial intelligence. As the forefront of artificial intelligence research shifts towards computationally intensive large language models, the mathematical operations required to build complex artificial intelligence systems are similar to the working methods of graphics chips, requiring a large number of simple calculations simultaneously. High performance graphics processors have become the computational foundation for training artificial intelligence. Data, algorithms, and computing power are considered the three pillars of artificial intelligence. The data model of artificial intelligence has a great demand for high-performance and high computing power AI chips. In addition, the rapid development of applications in various fields of artificial intelligence has driven the competition in the chip industry to become increasingly fierce, and the development goal has shifted towards high computing power, high flexibility, and low power consumption. Nvidia, which was originally a pioneer in the field of graphics processors, has now found a broader place of application and development space. With the help of the AI craze, the company's stock price has continued to rise, becoming the world's first chip company with a market value exceeding $2 trillion, reflecting the surge in demand for AI computing power from global technology companies. With the successive launch of big models such as Sora and Gemini, many applications based on big models are gradually landing, and the shortage of AI chips may continue for a considerable period of time. In order for technology companies to catch up with the trend in big model competition, they must build powerful computing facilities, and AI chips are becoming a bottleneck. It is estimated that Nvidia AI chips currently account for 70% to 80% of global sales in this field. At present, technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and "Yuan" have begun to lay out their own AI chips and join the competition for artificial intelligence chips. American semiconductor company Superpower has also announced an increase in investment in order to challenge Nvidia's market dominance. In December 2023, Chaowei Semiconductor released the MI300 series chip products that can be used to train and run large-scale language models. The people who made the most money during the mid-19th century gold rush were those who provided tools, not those who were searching for gold. Today, artificial intelligence chip companies represented by NVIDIA may play a similar role in this technological revolution. (Lai Xin She)

Edit:Yi Jing Responsible editor:Li Nian

Source:XinhuaNet

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