Hopper, the predecessor to Blackwell, also had a high price tag due to high demand, especially from companies looking to power the generative AI boom. Prior to the Hopper, Nvidia's A100 chips were priced much lower, around $10,000. For instance, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg plans to buy around 350,000 H100 chips by the end of 2024, which would increase the company's total stockpile to around 600,000 by the end of this year.
Key takeaways:
- Nvidia's newest AI chip, the Blackwell, will cost anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000, according to CEO Jensen Huang.
- The Blackwell chip is a significant upgrade from its predecessor, Hopper, with 208 billion transistors and five times the AI performance.
- The Hopper chip also had a high cost, around $40,000, during high demand periods, while the A100 chip before it was much cheaper at around $10,000.
- Companies like Meta are looking to buy large quantities of these chips, with plans to acquire around 350,000 H100 chips by the end of 2024.