Nvidia and Google Cloud unveil L4, an AI-optimized hardware platform for video applications

Nvidia has partnered with Google Cloud to launch a new cloud hardware offering, the L4 platform, optimized for video-focused applications. 

The L4 platform is designed to accelerate "AI-powered" video performance, serving as a general-purpose GPU with video decoding, transcoding, and video streaming capabilities. It will be available later this year from Nvidia's network hardware partners, including Asus, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo. 

In addition to L4, Nvidia has announced other AI-focused hardware solutions such as L40, H100 NVL, and Grace Hopper for Recommendation Models. The L40 is optimized for graphics and AI-enabled 2D, video, and 3D image generation, while the H100 NVL supports deploying large language models such as ChatGPT. 

Grace Hopper for Recommendation Models is recommendation model-focused. L40 is available this week through Nvidia's hardware partners, and Grace Hopper and the H100 NVL are expected to ship in the second half of the year. 

Nvidia is also launching its DGX Cloud platform, which gives companies access to infrastructure and software to train models for generative and other forms of AI. Each instance of DGX Cloud features eight Nvidia H100 or A100 80GB Tensor Core GPUs for a total of 640GB of GPU memory per node, paired with storage. 

The service will be hosted by "leading" cloud service providers, starting with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to follow. These developments demonstrate Nvidia's aggressive push into AI compute as the company moves away from unprofitable investments in other areas like gaming and professional virtualization. 

With the growth of its data center business, which includes chips for AI, Nvidia could continue to benefit from the generative AI boom. Stay tuned for more updates on these exciting developments!

Written By

Manish Content Strategist

With a mixture of literature, cinema, and photography, Manish is mostly traveling. When he is not, he is probably writing another tech news for you!

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