Beyond Nvidia: the search for AI's next breakthrough
For a few days, AI chip juggernaut Nvidia sat on the throne as the world's biggest company, but behind the its staggering success are questions on whether new entrants can stake a claim to the artificial intelligence bonanza.
The Rise of Nvidia
Nvidia, which makes the processors that are the only option to train generative AI's large language models, is now Big Tech's newest member and its stock market takeoff has lifted the whole sector. Even tech's second rung on Wall Street has ridden on Nvidia's coattails with Oracle, Broadcom, HP and a spate of others seeing their stock valuations surge, despite sometimes shaky earnings.
The Future of AI
Amid the champagne popping, startups seeking the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are being asked to innovate -- but without a clear indication of where the next chapter of AI will be written. When it comes to generative AI, doubts persist on what exactly will be left for companies that are not existing model makers, a field dominated by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
The Road Ahead
One of the fields ripe for the taking is chip design, with AI demanding ever more specialized processors that provide highly specific powers. Providing more specialized processing for the many demands of AI is an opportunity seized by Groq, a hot startup that has built chips for the deployment of AI as opposed to its training, or inference -- the specialty of Nvidia’s world-dominating GPUs.
Groq CEO Jonathan Ross told AFP that Nvidia won't be the best at everything, even if they are uncontested for generative AI training.
Specialized AI and Data
Another opportunity will come from highly specialized AI that will provide expertise and know-how based on proprietary data which won’t be co-opted by voracious big tech. Profiting from highly specialized data is the basis of Cohere, another of Silicon Valley's hottest startups that pitches specifically-made models to businesses that are skittish about AI veering out of their control.
