According to the Wall Street Journal, Nvidia wants its chips inside robots, cars and drones, with China becoming a useful customer.
The graphics chip outfit’s kit is no longer just for training chatbots. Nvidia is pushing artificial intelligence into real-world machines, including robots, self-driving cars and drones.
Physical artificial intelligence brings Nvidia about $10 billion a year. That is tiny compared with its $303 billion in revenue for the four quarters ended in July, but Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang reckons it can grow 10-fold in the next decade.
“If I can generate video of a finger moving, if I could generate video of a hand picking up a glass, why can’t I cause a robot to do the same?” Huang said.
Nvidia is pairing specialist chips with software tools used by robot and robotaxi developers. The cunning bit is getting customers hooked on a full Nvidia stack rather than just selling them silicon.
Huang has pulled his family into the scheme. Nvidia’s physical AI division marketing overseer, Madison Huang, oversees marketing, while Nvidia director of product management, Spencer Huang, works on product management.
Madison Huang visited LG Electronics’ robotics data factory in Seoul in August, then turned up at a Beijing robot show. She watched robots perform flying kicks and visited Chinese companies already using Nvidia technology.
The US has blocked Nvidia from selling its most powerful AI chips to China, but robot and car chips still get through. China is the world’s largest industrial robot market and shipped about 90 per cent of the world’s humanoid robots in the first half of this year.
Counterpoint Research analyst Brady Wang said China is critical to Nvidia’s physical AI road map. Chinese robot makers rely on Nvidia silicon and software, although some are testing Huawei, Black Sesame and Horizon Robotics in case Washington tightens the screws.
