Amazon’s New Nvidia-Based Systems Launch Shifts to 2025 as Blackwell Delay Bites
Global cloud-computing service provider, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that its Blackwell-powered systems won’t be available online until early 2025.
According to Yahoo Finance, the new timeline for Amazon’s new Nvidia-based systems is a few months later than originally predicted.
Blackwell AI Chips Delay
Nvidia unveiled the Blackwell AI chips in March 2024. At the time, the giant chip maker had said that big techs such as Amazon would have the AI chips ready by the end of 2024. This timeline changed in August 2024 after Nvidia announced a three or more months of delay in production of Blackwell AI chips due to design flaws.
At the time, the chip maker acknowledged that Blackwell production had proven to be more difficult than anticipated and that the company was making adjustments to improve its production yield. AWS says this delay has affected its timelines for availing Blackwell-powered systems to customers.
“Nvidia’s timelines have shifted. Right now, we’re working with them and we have early samples, but as they get their yields up from the respin of the Blackwell chip, it’ll probably be early next year before we get production samples in real volume,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said on Bloomberg TV.
Amazon is waiting to receive high quantities of Blackwell AI chips for use in its data centers after Nvidia’s respin production change.
Growing Investor Interest
Nvidia’s latest product has captivated investors, who are keenly watching to see when it will be put to use by customers. At the beginning of October 2024, Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang confirmed that production of Nvidia Corp Blackwell chips was on course and going as planned.
Huang termed the demand for the AI chips as ‘insane’ despite production delays the company had experienced. The runaway demand for Blackwell AI chips has pushed demand for Nvidia stocks, making the company one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Huang’s confirmation of strong Blackwell GPU chip demand pushed Nvidia’s share prices up by 3% on October 3, 2024 morning. On October 14, 2024, Nvidia notched Apple’s market capitalization after its stocks closed at a record $138.07. This share surge pushed Nvidia’s market capitalization to $3.39 trillion, placing the company above Microsoft’s $3.12 trillion, but slightly below Apple’s $3.52 trillion.
Nvidia stocks temporarily hit a new record of $140.89 on October 17, 2024. The company expects to generate billions in revenue from Blackwell AI chip sales in quarter four of this year. Overall, Nvidia’s share price has risen by about 180% since the beginning of the year.
First in Line
In recent months, demand for Nvidia’s AI chips has increased among data center operators, which rely on them to design AI software and services. AWS plans to use Amazon’s Nvidia systems to speed up inference workloads for its multi-trillion and resource-intensive parameter language models. This will enable customers in every industry to unlock new generative AI capabilities faster.
According to Garman, AWS will be the first to deploy computers that run on the new Nvidia-based systems in large quantities. Dell Technologies has also announced that it will be making Blackwell-based servers available at the start of 2025.
