Nvidia’s decision to enter the crowded market for AI computer chips this week puts it at odds with a long-held company philosophy that it only pursues markets that do not yet exist.
The $5.4tn tech giant is betting it can replicate the success of its data-centre chips against established heavyweights Apple, Intel, AMD and Qualcomm in the realm of semiconductors for personal computers.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, argued that the company’s RTX Spark chip, unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taipei this week, would create another “zero billion-dollar market”, referring to promising technologies that make no revenue now, just as Nvidia’s graphics processing units and software helped catalyse the rise of AI.