Jim Keller says Nvidia will become 'the IBM of the AI era'
Haebom
1
Created by
Haebom
Created at
A while ago, I was talking with @최준원 about promising companies of the future, and I said that I don't know what will come out in the future, but if IBM and Oracle don't properly replace themselves, it will be difficult in the future. Then, in the RUMOA group chat, while talking about Chip, I became interested in Tenstorrent, and I saw an article by Jim Keller, a former engineer at Apple and Tesla, comparing Nvidia's AI chip to IBM's dominance in the PC market in the 1980s.
We live in the era of Jim Keller.
Jim Keller is a legendary engineer in the semiconductor industry. His career is incredibly diverse and influential. At AMD, he designed the K7 and K8 architectures and led the company’s revival. At Apple, he participated in the development of the A4 and A5 processors, contributing to the performance innovation of the iPhone and iPad. At Tesla, he led the development of chips for autonomous driving, and he also played a key role at Intel.
This week on the DemystifySci podcast, Jim Keller, a former chief engineer at Apple and Tesla, spoke about Nvidia. Keller, who now heads his own AI chip startup, emphasized that Nvidia currently sells “the best processor in terms of functionality,” and that big tech companies are competing to secure Nvidia chips.
Jim Keller, who has worked at AMD, Apple, and Tesla and is now the CEO of an AI chip startup that competes with Nvidia, says Nvidia is “becoming the IBM of the AI era.” Speaking on Sunday’s episode of the DemystifySci podcast, Keller mentioned Nvidia’s AI chips, noting that companies like Microsoft and Google are using Nvidia’s technology to power their own innovations. “All the big tech companies are in an arms race, and they’re all reaching out to Nvidia,” Keller said.
Keller, who leads Tenstorrent, a $2 billion AI chip startup backed by Samsung and Hyundai, said Nvidia currently has “the best processor in terms of functionality.” He added, “Nvidia is slowly becoming the IBM of AI. We’ll see how it goes. I have an opinion on this because I run an AI technology company myself.” Nvidia is currently the leader in AI chips, with more than 80% market share. Nvidia claims to have been investing in AI and machine learning development since 2006, giving it a first-mover advantage in AI computing.
IBM can also be seen as a pioneer in the PC market. IBM did not invent the PC, but its 1981 personal desktop brought computing to a wider audience and earned $1 billion in revenue in its first year. According to IEEE Spectrum, IBM “set the technology standard” with its first PC.
Keller has previously commented on the cost of AI chips from Nvidia and ChatGPT maker OpenAI (which currently uses Nvidia chips). In April, he claimed that Nvidia had been able to reduce its R&D costs, and in February, he said that it could build AI processors for every workload and AI enterprise at one-eighth the cost proposed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In March, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that its next-generation AI chips would cost more than $30,000.
Given this situation, we can see that Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market is strengthening. However, with competitors such as Jim Keller continuing to challenge, it is worth paying attention to how the market structure will change in the future. Time will tell whether Nvidia will truly become the 'IBM of the AI era' or whether new innovative companies will reorganize the market.
Subscribe to 'haebom'
📚 Welcome to Haebom's archives. --- I post articles related to IT 💻, economy 💰, and humanities 🎭. If you are curious about my thoughts, perspectives or interests, please subscribe. Would you like to be notified when new articles are posted? 🔔 Yes, that means subscribe. haebom@kakao.com
