Nvidia CEO talks about Metaverse, Arm acquisition, Chinese market, semiconductor shortage, etc.

At the Taipei International Computer Fair 'Computex 2021' held in the first week of June 2021, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talked about various topics related to Nvidia such as Metaverse and the acquisition of Arm.

Nvidia CEO: We're “on the cusp of” a blockchain and NFT-enabled metaverse
https://cointelegraph.com/news/nvidia-ceo-we-re-on-the-cusp-of-a-blockchain-and-nft-enabled-metaverse

◆ GeForce ecosystem
Computex 2021 is an event in Taiwan, and CEO Juan said, 'Taiwan is the center of many of our add-in card partners and major laptop partners, and the home of the GeForce ecosystem, so to speak, the epicenter. Emphasizes the role of Taiwan. Then I touched on the 'GeForce ecosystem'.

According to CEO Juan, the GeForce business is 'incredibly successful,' and it's the RTX series that determined its success. 'The RTX-equipped laptop is the best RTX game console in the world when viewed as a game console. RTX-equipped laptops ship more than game consoles every year, and even the RTX 3060 is better than the PlayStation 5. It's 30-50% faster. The fact that a game console is literally in such a small thin notebook is spurring sales, and the software stack and rendering stack required for design applications such as Adobe and Autodesk. We also have RTX-equipped notebook PCs, which is the driving force behind Nvidia's strong performance. In the 2020 global pandemic and rapidly expanding laptop segment, RTX-equipped laptops are growing seven times faster than the entire segment, he said.

In Computex 2021, Nvidia has announced a number of software updates in addition to the 'GeForce RTX 3080 Ti' and '3070 Ti'.

NVIDIA announces 'GeForce RTX 3080 Ti' '3070 Ti', 3080 Ti approaches '3090' specs --GIGAZINE

◆ Data center department
Nvidia provides enterprise data center solutions such as deep learning, AI and GPU cloud computing. CEO Juan named NVIDIA AI Enterprise, a comprehensive suite of enterprise-grade AI tools and frameworks co-developed with VMware.

CEO Juan described NVIDIA AI Enterprise as 'like a pre-trained new graduate, with excellent image recognition and language comprehension.' As a use case, he commented that it can realize X-ray image recognition in health care, automatic checkout in retail stores, and automatic inventory tracking in logistics. He said that Nvidia's acceleration computing, which is the basis of these technologies, is supporting Nvidia's growth.

◆ Metaverse
Regarding the highly versatile virtual space 'Metaverse' represented by ' Second Life ', Nvidia announced its own Metaverse 'Omniverse ' as of 2019. And in Computex 2021, Nvidia revealed more details about Omniverse.

The Metaverse Begins: NVIDIA Omniverse and a Future of Shared Worlds-YouTube


Regarding the future of the Metaverse itself, CEO Juan said, 'We may be spending time with our friends in the Metaverse, and we may be able to feel each other's existence in 3D space.' 'For example,' Fort Knight 'and' World of Warcraft ' I think that will eventually evolve into a form of Metaverse, 'he said, insisting that the future of spending time in virtual space could become a reality. The most important technologies to realize such a metaverse are 'AR device' and 'physically simulated VR space'.

Regarding 'physically simulated VR space', 'If you drop an object designed with Metaverse on the ground, it will fall on the ground according to the laws of physics. We are also looking at the lighting state. It's the same. The material is also physically simulated. These are important components of the Metaverse, and that's why we developed Omniverse. ' According to CEO Juan, Omniverse is a combination of almost everything it has built so far and is being tested by BMW and WPP, the world's largest advertising agency, as an open beta as of June 2021. That is.

Omniverse Platform for Virtual Collaboration and Virtual Simulation-NVIDIA
https://www.nvidia.com/ja-jp/omniverse/

◆ Chinese market
According to the press, 'Many GPU startups have appeared in China in the past 1-2 years. There are many reasons why the appearance of' Chinese version of Nvidia 'is desired in China, but Chinese customers are you. In response to the question, 'What do you think about wanting to see your rivals?', CEO Juan said, 'We have invested for 30 years and in a few years we have $ 10 billion (about 1 trillion). We are now able to invest 100 billion yen in one thing. We have great investment ability and expertise, and we love this market deeply. Our position is not certain. No. We have to respect all of our competitors, take them seriously, and recognize that there are a wide range of areas where AI can be used. We have to keep running. ' Announced the readiness to meet.

The next question, 'Are you worried about the interference of the Chinese government?', 'The position in China and our contribution to China are good. Helping Internet companies, helping many startups, AI development researchers We are making a significant contribution to China's IT ecosystem, and I think the Chinese government has acknowledged it. '

◆ CPU 'Grace' for Arm-based data centers
In April 2021, Nvidia announced the 'Grace ' CPU for data centers that adopted the Arm architecture. Regarding Grace, which is scheduled to be released in early 2023, the question 'Do you think that you will overtake x86 processors in the server market?' I think there will be many CPUs such as edge CPUs, data center CPUs, supercomputing CPUs, enterprise computing CPUs, etc., so there is more than one answer. ' Answered. Meanwhile, it has stated that it will continue to support x86 in the markets where Nvidia products serve.

◆ Acquisition of Arm
Nvidia acquired the semiconductor design company Arm from Softbank in September 2020, but in April 2021 it was intervened by the British government because of 'national security concerns'.

The British government intervenes in the acquisition of NVIDIA's Arm, which has moved about 4.2 trillion yen, because of 'national security concerns' --GIGAZINE

by htomari

In response to the question, 'Is there a follow-up?', CEO Juan said, 'Regulatory approval is expected to take about 18 months. Regulators are investigating whether the acquisition will drive competition or become a market monopoly. However, Nvidia manufactures GPUs and DPUs, Arm manufactures CPUs, and they are complementary companies. Providing complementary products naturally creates innovation. I'm confident about the deal, 'he said, confident that he would definitely get approval, although it would take some time.

◆ Semiconductor shortage
Regarding 'cryptocurrency mining', which is considered to play a major role in the global semiconductor shortage that will continue from 2020, Nvidia offers a mining-specialized processor ' Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) '. Regarding mining, CEO Juan said, 'Nvidia's GPU is used for both Ethereum mining and Bitcoin mining. Other crypto assets are also reliable with a proof of work using algorithms that work on our GPU. 'We have established the effectiveness and consistency. It is the most energy efficient and performance.' About Ethereum 'If you are asked if you are excited about the proof of stake, the answer is yes. Ethereum Demand has reached a very high level, Ethereum is a lot reliable, it works well, and many people use it for DeFi and other uses. '' Ethereum is very valuable. It has been proven to be something, 'he said, and he said he developed a mining-specific processor for that purpose.

Regarding the problem of high prices of GPU products, he said, 'As you can see from GeForce, we have not raised the price, the suggested retail price has not changed.' He commented that soaring prices are the problem. He said that mining is part of the cause of this problem, and that the provision of mining-specific processor CMP will gradually reduce the market price of GeForce and others. On the other hand, he declined to say that the problem of global semiconductor shortage depends on who it is and how much it is.