Enabling the next few steps in Artificial Intelligence will be Nvidia’s Blackwell chips… but only if Nvidia can meet insatiable demand.
Reportedly Nvidia’s Blackwell chips are completely sold out for the next 12 months. So that’s something.
Morgan Stanley analysts shared insights from recent meetings with Nvidia’s leadership, including CEO Jensen Huang. During these meetings, it was revealed that orders for the Blackwell GPUs are already sold out for the next 12 months. This means new customers placing orders today must wait until late next year to receive their orders.
Selling out of Blackwell chips could definitely impede the aspirations of Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, etc. Without those chips they may lose their competitive edge, although temporarily, and may not be able to run their latest AI models efficiently… which could cost them dearly. Efficiency is key when we’re talking AI these days. I mean companies are having to resort to nuclear power to meet future power demands from data centers.
Anyways, this absence of chips may actually assist Nvidia’s competitors. If you need chips NOW, and Nvidia can’t supply them in large enough quantities or at all, then you’re going to go to the alternatives… AMD and Intel. And with Intel’s Gaudi 3 positioning itself as the value option, getting a good number of Gaudi chips instead of Blackwell may be appealing.
I imagine Nvidia has prioritized large customer orders from the likes of Microsoft, Open AI, and Oracle over smaller orders but even so the giants of AI might not get enough Blackwell chips for future demand. Again Gaudi 3 may be the answer. Which is surprising considering how badly Intel has done.
What this should really emphasize is just how insatiable demand for chips really is right now. Not only is Blackwell doing well but the knock on effect of doing so well may be an increase in sales for AMD and Intel as well!
TSMC is cranking chips out and the world is apparently buying every last one.