(Bloomberg) -- Nvidia Corp., facing concerns about the electricity demands of artificial intelligence computing, touted the energy efficiency of its latest chips at a conference Tuesday in Washington.
The company’s Blackwell chips, which are beginning to roll out to customers this year, would need 3 gigawatts of power to develop OpenAI’s GPT-4 software, Nvidia said at an event called the AI Summit DC. Ten years ago, that process would have required 5,500 gigawatts, the chipmaker said.
“Our Blackwell platform is basically built with energy efficiency in mind,” Nvidia Vice President Bob Pette said at a briefing ahead of the event.
The Santa Clara, California-based company also pointed to its headway in software. That includes producing “agent blueprints” that will let businesses rapidly deploy customized AI services. Agents are pieces of software that handle real-world tasks, such as dealing with customer requests, aiding in the design of a device or speeding up drug discovery.
Nvidia shares gained as much as 4.1% to $132.92 on Tuesday. The stock has more than doubled this year, following a 239% rally in 2023.
Though Nvidia has been the single biggest beneficiary of the AI spending boom, much of its revenue comes from a small group of data center makers and operators. The company said it’s “leading the charge” to spread the use of the technology to more areas, setting the stage for what it sees as a new industrial revolution.
The push also includes finding more customized uses for AI. Though tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are generally helpful, they tend to “regurgitate back what we’ve put on the internet,” Pette said.
Such a service isn’t going to find a cure for cancer or help run a specific business, he said. Instead, people will need a smaller AI model that’s been tailored to a certain purpose.
The software is part of an ever-expanding range of Nvidia products and services — a lineup that spans chips, servers, networking gear, AI models and services. The overarching goal is to help companies more easily put together everything they need to be able to use AI.
Beyond the agent software, Deloitte LLP is using some Nvidia software in its CyberSphere online security service. AT&T Inc., Lowe’s Cos. and ServiceNow Inc. are also adopting Nvidia offerings, the chipmaker said.
AI has the potential to transform the health care industry in particular, Nvidia said. The Santa Clara, California-based company has been preparing for this shift for a decade by developing a drug discovery business, Pette said.
(Updates with shares in fifth paragraph.)
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