Nvidia Announces Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin AI Chips

Key Announcements

• Blackwell Ultra: New chip family shipping in H2 2023, designed for high-performance AI model deployment.
• Vera Rubin: Next-generation GPU system expected to ship in H2 2026, featuring a custom CPU (Vera) and advanced GPU design (Rubin).

Business Insights

• Revenue Growth: Nvidia's sales have surged over sixfold since late 2022, driven by demand for its GPUs in AI training.
• Market Dominance: Nvidia leads the market for AI model training with its "big GPUs," capturing significant cloud provider investments.

Vera Rubin GPU System

• Performance:
  • Inference Speed: 50 petaflops (vs. 20 petaflops for current Blackwell chips).
  • Memory Capacity: 288GB of fast memory, a key metric for AI developers.
• Architecture:
  • Vera is Nvidia's first custom CPU design, based on the Olympus core.
  • Rubin combines two GPUs into one system, with plans for a "Rubin Next" chip in H2 2027 that doubles speed (four GPUs combined).

Blackwell Ultra Chips

• Performance:
  • Delivers more tokens per second, enabling faster content generation.
  • Cloud providers can achieve up to 50x revenue increase compared to the Hopper generation (2023).
• Deployment Options:
  • Available in versions with two GPUs paired with an Arm CPU (GB300) and standalone GPU (B300).
  • Rack version features 72 Blackwell chips.

Competitive Dynamics

• DeepSeek R1 Model: While initially seen as a threat, Nvidia is using it to benchmark its new products.
• Reasoning Models: Vera Rubin and Blackwell Ultra are optimized for reasoning models, which require more computing power during deployment.

Strategic Considerations

• Annual Release Cadence: Nvidia aims to release new chips annually, up from every other year pre-AI boom.
• Custom CPU Development: Vera marks a shift toward custom CPU designs, potentially offering better performance than off-the-shelf options.

Long-Term Effects and Market Implications

• AI Training Growth: The "scaling law of AI" suggests sustained demand for high-performance chips.
• Cloud Provider Investments: Top cloud companies are deploying three times as many Blackwell chips as Hopper chips, indicating continued focus on Nvidia's technology.
• Global Competition: While models like DeepSeek R1 pose challenges, Nvidia's focus on efficiency and advanced architectures positions it for long-term leadership.

Regulatory Considerations

• No direct mention of regulatory impacts in the text.