Nvidia has pointed the finger at a new scapegoat for soaring GPU prices and this time it's AI developers -- the very kind of companies it courts with new hardware like its Tesla V100 and DGX-2 server. Although cryptocurrency plays a part in the conundrum, it's companies buying up huge numbers of GPUs to power complicated supercomputers with them and run high-end AI software, that is causing an even bigger headache for GPU supply, we're told.
The solution to the problem? Nvidia is going to try and build a lot more graphics cards.
"We have to build a whole lot more," said CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang in a chat with TechCrunch. "The video supply chain is working really hard, and you know all of our partners are working around the clock. We’ve got to come closer to the demand of the market. And right now, we’re not anywhere near close to that and so we’re just going to have to keep running."
Unfortunately, that means it could be a long time before we see any kind of fix for these issues. The lack of graphics card supply, the continued high-interest of cryptocurrency miners, the supply problems with GDDR5 memory as well, mean that Nvidia is unlikely to turn the problem around any time soon.
Indeed the tone of Huang's interview suggests that as much as Nvidia plans to continue making GPUs for gamers, that it sees a new business for itself in the future: making parallel processing units for AI and smart cars. If that's the case, it will be interesting to see whether Nvidia shifts its focus in the years to come and GPUs end up as a small part of its business, rather than its main focus.
