At a keynote address in San Jose, California, today, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, announced a strategic collaboration between General Motors and Nvidia. The partnership involves General Motors utilizing various products and artificial intelligence services from Nvidia for its next-generation vehicles, advanced driver-assistance systems, and factories.
As part of the agreement, GM will build custom artificial intelligence systems using Nvidia compute platforms, including “Omniverse with Cosmos,” to enhance factory planning and robotics. Additionally, GM will implement “Nvidia Drive AGX” for in-vehicle hardware to support advanced driver-assistance systems and enhance safety driving experiences in their vehicles.
Both companies are excited about the collaboration, with Jensen Huang stating, “The era of physical AI is here, and together with GM, we’re transforming transportation, from vehicles to the factories where they’re made.” GM CEO Mary Barra added, “By merging technology with human ingenuity, we unlock new levels of innovation in vehicle manufacturing and beyond.”
The partnership was announced in conjunction with Nvidia’s GTC AI conference in California. Nvidia’s Omniverse platform, used by companies like BMW and Amazon Robotics, allows for the development and deployment of physically based industrial digitalization applications by creating a digital twin of physical environments for optimization processes.
The cost is $4,500 per GPU per year. The exact number of GPUs required by GM is uncertain, but considering the complex systems needed to run a modern assembly plant, it is likely to be substantial. Over 20 automakers, including Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Audi, Volkswagen, and BYD, have utilized Nvidia’s “system on a chip” technology in the central computing units of their smart vehicles. According to an industry research note from Jeffries in November 2023, Nvidia has experienced a surge in demand for its GPUs in recent years, with applications ranging from bitcoin mining to AI inference and training. Recent news from CNBC includes predictions of slower economic growth and an increased risk of a recession based on the CNBC Fed Survey, as well as Google’s acquisition of cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion following a failed deal last year. Additionally, a widely followed investor survey has shown a significant decline in bullish sentiment towards stocks.
