It invested in Coreweave , OpenAI, Oracle, Intel, Synopsys, and Nokia, all of which are heavily involved in the AI industry or are adjacent to it. It's keenly aware that even as the king of the AI pile, it needs those other economic and industry pillars to keep the whole house of cards standing.
If Nvidia were bold enough, it could try to buy out Lumentum and Coherent entirely. Their company valuations are a fraction of Nvidia's profits from even the past quarter. But it didn't. It secured capacity, but not exclusive rights. Nvidia isn't looking to eat the AI industry and supply chain, but bolster its output.
As much as Nvidia is the clear market leader when it comes to AI hardware, it is far from the only player in the game. China has used Nvidia's absence to heavily invest and fuel its domestic inference chip industry. AMD recently signed a $60 billion deal with Meta to power its next-generation AI-powering data centers, and there are small startup companies looking to build out ASIC chips that could prove far more powerful for future AI workloads when fully developed.
Marvell's Celestial AI acquisition highlights that other companies see optical technologies as a key future technology for next-generation networking hardware. Meanwhile, the Bill Gates-backed Neurophos is developing AI chips that use photonics to accelerate even beyond what the best GPUs can do.
Nvidia made itself the king of the AI hill by having the best hardware at the right time, and as far as training goes, that doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. But if Nvidia doesn't keep developing its hardware, other contenders would emerge. And the competition is ramping up in the inference space, leaving no guarantee that Nvidia will retain its premier position forever.
Perhaps getting ahead of the pack when it comes to photonics will be one way it can maintain its lead. But even if it doesn't, $4 billion is a drop in the bucket for a company that made close to 20 times that in the past three months alone.
Jon Martindale is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. For the past 20 years, he's been writing about PC components, emerging technologies, and the latest software advances. His deep and broad journalistic experience gives him unique insights into the most exciting technology trends of today and tomorrow. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-18/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jon Martindale Freelance Writer Jon Martindale is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. For the past 20 years, he's been writing about PC components, emerging technologies, and the latest software advances. His deep and broad journalistic experience gives him unique insights into the most exciting technology trends of today and tomorrow.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/nvidia-invests-usd4-billion-into-photonics-firms-in-a-bid-to-bolster-data-center-interconnect-supply-chains-lumentum-and-coherent-investment-to-fund-u-s-r-and-d-and-manufacturing-facilities-supports-capacity-rights-and-future-access#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.