Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is determined to make the company a comprehensive supplier of data center components, including software, network technology and design services.
The move is part of a strategy to cement Nvidia's position as a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, according to the Wall Street Journal. This move comes after a recent quarterly report in which Nvidia beat Wall Street expectations. It came shortly after rival AMD unveiled its nearly $5 billion acquisition of ZT Systems, a data center design and manufacturing company.
Nvidia is leveraging its dominance in the AI chip market, where the company has over 80% market share, to offer a more integrated suite of products and services for what Huang calls "AI factories." These are the data centers that develop and run AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Huang's vision is to transform Nvidia from just being a hardware supplier to being a one-stop shop for all key data center components, according to the WSJ.
The company's strategy involves leveraging its proprietary software, CUDA, which has been a cornerstone of its success for 17 years. CUDA enables developers to harness the power of Nvidia's GPUs for computational tasks. Additionally, Nvidia is investing in InfiniBand, a high-speed networking protocol widely used in AI training.
Nvidia acquired Mellanox Technologies, the leading equipment manufacturer for InfiniBand, five years ago for nearly $7 billion. Nvidia is also moving into AI-optimized Ethernet services, which are expected to generate significant revenue within the next year, according to Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress.
This service is part of Nvidia's broader range of data center products, including central processors and network chips designed to work together. The company adapts its offering to meet the specific needs of different industries, such as healthcare and robotics, by providing specialized software and hardware setups.