Microsoft, the biggest backer of OpenAI, has recently bought half a million GPUs from Nvidia, surpassing all of its tech rivals.
Microsoft has taken an aggressive approach toward establishing its leadership position in the AI landscape. OpenAI’s biggest backer company has recently purchased 485,000 of Nvidia’s “Hopper” chips, surpassing the buyers of Nvidia’s flagship AI chips in the US and China.
In quantitative terms, Microsoft now owns twice as many AI chips as any of its tech rivals. Meta is the closest follower in terms of being the biggest Nvidia AI chips buyer, with 224,000 Hopper chips bought this year itself. Amazon and Google lie far behind in this race, especially as Nvidia’s US customers.
Nvidia has declared a huge gap between the global demand and the availability of the most advanced graphic processing units for over two years now. Microsoft’s move to hoard these advanced AI chips will give it a significant edge over other big tech players in the AI race.
In 2024, big tech companies have invested billions of dollars in data centers that run on the most advanced AI chips, making them the hottest commodity across Silicon Valley. Even though OpenAI stands as a pioneer of genAI, causing an unprecedented surge in AI demand, Microsoft’s backing has given it a strong infrastructure to rely on.
Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure is the primary source of fueling OpenAI’s o1 model’s training. The lack of semiconductor AI chips and chipmakers alike has pitted Nvidia against all software companies, as it can only fulfill the complete requirements of limited buyers.
Adding to it are the continuously evolving regulations and international relations that restrict certain companies from buying the top AI chips. As a result, Chinese tech giants ByteDance and Tencent have been ordering a less powerful H20 model of AI chips from Nvidia to meet the US export controls for Chinese customers.
Amid surging demand, Nvidia’s valuation has crossed $3 trillion as companies rush to create larger clusters of data centers and GPUs to fuel their AI advancements. Even the top AI development companies are vying to grab hold of Nvidia’s latest successor to the Hopper chips, Blackwell.
