Nvidia’s Ambitious Plan
The global chip manufacturer, Nvidia Corporation, recently revealed its plan to build Israel’s most potent artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer. The project aims to meet the increasing customer demand for advanced AI applications.
Investment and Timeline
As a top publicly traded chip company, Nvidia estimates that the new cloud-based system would cost several hundred million dollars. The company aims for the system to be partly operational by the end of 2023.
Collaborative Effort
Gilad Shainer, a senior executive at Nvidia, highlighted the project’s collaborative nature. Around 800 Israeli startups and tens of thousands of software engineers are part of this ambitious project.
The Power of Israel-1
The supercomputer, named Israel-1, promises to deliver a whopping eight exaflops of AI computing power. With such figures, it will be among the world’s fastest AI supercomputers. One exaflop can execute 1 quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, computations every second.
Role of AI and GPUs
Shainer stressed the importance of AI and the role of large-scale graphics processing units (GPUs) in its development. Generative AI, which has become ubiquitous, requires training on extensive datasets.
Impact on Israeli Companies
The new supercomputer will provide Israeli companies with computational resources they currently lack. Shainer explained that this system would speed up model training, accelerate framework development, and provide solutions for complex problems.
The Mellanox Connection
The former Mellanox team is developing the project. Nvidia outbid Intel Corp in 2019 and bought Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli chip designer firm, for nearly $7 billion.
Future Collaborations
Nvidia plans to cater to its Israeli partners initially with the supercomputer. Shainer hinted at possible collaborations with partners outside of Israel in the future.
Competing with Giants
Following this announcement, Nvidia revealed a partnership with Britain’s University of Bristol. They aim to build a new supercomputer powered by a new Nvidia chip. This project is a significant challenge to Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, showcasing Nvidia’s commitment to advancing AI technology.