Jim Keller: AI chip prices will continue to fall

Latest update time：2024-03-11

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Source : Content compiled by Semiconductor Industry Observation (ID: i c ba nk) from koreajoongangdaily , thank you.

Toronto-based chip design startup Tenstorrent is unfazed by Nvidia's unrelenting dominance in semiconductors as CEO Jim Keller says the artificial intelligence market is "not a zero-sum game."

With an eye on the rapidly expanding market, the eight-year-old company aims to offer a diverse portfolio of solutions – including designs, monolithic chips, chiplets and complete systems – to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the AI world.

"Nvidia has good products and good customers, but there are many other customers who cannot meet their needs," Keller said in an earlier interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at Tenstorrent's newly opened South Korean office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. .

Often referred to as a "chip legend" in the semiconductor industry, Keller has worked at AMD, Apple, Tesla and Intel, developing important chip architectures and microarchitectures such as AMD's K8 and Ryzen and Apple's iPhone A series.

"Intel has owned most of the PC chips for years, but there are 50 other successful companies selling chips for other uses, and it will be the same thing with AI. The AI solutions are going to be very diverse."

Tenstorrent handles a variety of solutions, from IP licensing to sales of rack-mounted systems, which is unique for a chip startup.

"I was told to focus on one segment, but what we're really focused on is the evolution of the AI models, which happens pretty quickly," he said. “We want to provide tools to run all new AI models quickly. [We want to provide] some kind of technology, like glass. They go into buildings, they go into cars. You wouldn’t say glass is only for one particular market segment. "

Nvidia's technological prowess undoubtedly plays a role in its market dominance - the U.S. company is now the world's fourth most valuable company, with a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion - but it is reluctant to change the conservatism of its chip partners Customers also factor in the monopoly factor of their virtualization.

Keller doesn’t feel challenged in this regard either.

If more than half of the $100 billion market is considered conservative, that means "40 percent of the market is not conservative," Keller said.

"This is a $40 billion business, which is huge and growing," he said. "We don't have to hack [Nvidia] anywhere. When a business becomes like AMD vs. Intel, they have all these people looking at who sells what to whom because that's what two vendors become 10 customers. Now, the market is large and growing, with many different needs.”

Keller expects the currently soaring prices of AI chips to fall as more competitors, including Tenstorrent, enter the market at lower prices.

"Our technology strategy is to use lower-cost DRAM (dynamic random access memory) for packaging and design," the CEO said. "From a business perspective, whenever something is growing very fast, prices are going to go up. When growth slows down and more people enter the market, prices are going to go down. I think competition is going to be very fierce in the next few years."

Economic cycles will also contribute, he predicted.

"The big buyers, if their business weakens, especially after they just bought a lot of AI computers, they may slow down their orders."

Tenstorrent is a familiar name in the Korean business community thanks to a series of partnerships with Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics. The startup became one of the first customers at the Korean chipmaker's manufacturing facility in Tyler, Texas. Its Quasar chiplets are expected to be released in 2024 and will be manufactured on the 4nm node.

When asked whether Samsung's delaying mass production at the Taylor factory from the second half of this year to next year has affected the company's production schedule, Keller said that the relevant prototypes have already been put into production.

"We will do tapeout this year and get the chips back by the end of this year or early next year."

Tenstorrent also raised $50 million from Hyundai Motor Group as part of the strategic partnership. The two now collaborate on projects related to self-driving cars, robotics and air transportation.

Keller acknowledged, however, that such self-driving car technology is not yet complete.

"There's still a long way to go," he said.

"But a lot of people tend to think that if you don't go to the moon, you've failed. But when smartphones first came out, they were good but not great. It took 10 years. So autonomous driving in the next 10 years It's going to get better."

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https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-03-03/business/tech/INTERVIEW-Why-Tenstorrent-CEO-Jim-Keller-isnt-worried-about-Nvidia/1993570

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