Nvidia Aims to Keep Its Hot Streak Rolling in 2025 with AI-Centric Announcements
As the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) gets underway in Las Vegas, Nvidia is looking to keep its hot streak rolling from 2024 and into 2025 with a number of AI-centric announcements. CEO Jensen Huang took the stage during the company’s keynote, laying out his vision for everything from AI software that will power robots and self-driving cars to a new AI supercomputer that fits on your desk.
Nvidia’s Stock Price Jumps Ahead of Keynote
The company’s stock price jumped as high as 4.7% ahead of the keynote on Monday as Wall Street braced for Nvidia’s latest offerings. The company’s stock is up a whopping 205% over the last 12 months thanks to its prescient investments in AI hardware and its CUDA software, which allows developers to use its chips to run AI programs.
Nvidia’s Latest Announcements: Focus on Existing Hardware
The latest announcements focused on how programmers can take advantage of Nvidia’s existing hardware, its Hopper and Blackwell platforms. The company could debut its next-generation chip during its GTC conference in March.
Introducing the GB10 Superchip
During Monday’s event, Huang showed off Nvidia’s newest Blackwell-based chip, the GB10 superchip. It’s a pint-sized version of the GB200 superchip, which combines a Grace central processing unit (CPU) with two Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs). The smaller GB10 pairs a Grace CPU and Blackwell GPU.
Project DIGITS: A Powerful Desktop System
Nvidia says the chip will be available in a small desktop system called Project DIGITS and will come with 128GB of memory and 4TB of storage. The company says the setup is powerful enough for researchers interested in ‘prototyping, fine-tuning, and running large AI models.’ Project DIGITS will start at $3,000 and be available in May from Nvidia and its OEM partners.
AI Robots and Self-Driving Trucks: Beyond the Desktop
Beyond its new chip and desktop, Nvidia also debuted its open model license Cosmos platform for developing physical AI systems. The platform uses world foundation models, or WFMs, which are AI models that simulate conditions in the real world. Physical AI systems include technologies like humanoid robots and self-driving cars.
The Cosmos Platform: A Game-Changer for Robotics
The idea is for companies to use Cosmos to help develop the software needed to power robots and self-driving cars, by simulating various usage scenarios in a virtual setting without having to use pricey robots or putting cars on the road in the real world. This will not only save costs but also accelerate the development process.
Isaac GROOT Blueprint: A Breakthrough for Humanoid Robotics
In addition to Cosmos, Nvidia debuted its Isaac GROOT Blueprint for training humanoid robots. The software, which connects to Apple’s Vision Pro headset, allows a developer to perform and record specific movements they want to teach a robot. Isaac GROOT Blueprint then takes those movements and synthesizes them, providing the robot with an enormous set of movements based on the developer’s original motions.
A Time-Saving Solution for Engineers
Engineers often have to teach humanoid robots to move by performing repetitive movements that the bot can follow and understand on its own. It’s normally a time-consuming affair, but with the Isaac GROOT Blueprint, Nvidia says developers will be able to cut down on the time needed to create future humanoid robotics systems.
Nvidia in the Automotive Industry
On the automotive front, Nvidia announced that Toyota will begin using the company’s DRIVE AGX Orin chip and the Nvidia DriveOS operating system to power the automaker’s advanced driver assistance features in its next-generation vehicles. ‘The AV revolution has arrived,’ Huang said during the keynote. ‘I predict that this will likely be the first multi-trillion-dollar robotics industry.’
Nvidia’s Partnership with Continental and Aurora
Nvidia also said it has entered into an agreement with automotive company Continental and self-driving truck company Aurora that will see the transportation firms use Nvidia’s DRIVE hardware and DriveOS software alongside Aurora’s level 4 autonomous driving system called Aurora Driver. Continental and Aurora plan to deploy the technology in their commercial vehicles.
A New Era for Autonomous Vehicles
This partnership marks a significant step forward in the development of autonomous vehicles. With Nvidia’s expertise in AI and its ability to provide powerful hardware, the company is well-positioned to play a leading role in this emerging industry.
Enabling AI Capabilities for Standard Graphics Cards
Nvidia also said users running its latest RTX graphics cards will now be able to launch foundation models using its Nvidia NIM platform. Essentially, the company is enabling AI capabilities for standard graphics cards via its NIM service, which should open up broader opportunities for software developers, helping it to court more customers moving forward.
A Bright Future for Nvidia
Nvidia’s latest announcements demonstrate its commitment to advancing the field of artificial intelligence and its applications in robotics and autonomous vehicles. With its powerful hardware and innovative software solutions, the company is poised to continue its hot streak in 2025 and beyond.
