In the transforming world of technology, Nvidia seems to have taken the centre stage this week. From Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO stating “Every Country needs sovereign AI” at World Governments Summit (WGS), 2024, to the chipmaker historically beating Google and Amazon in market value, and now the launch of the Generative AI Chat bot- Chat with RTX.
And not to mention its recent investments in Arm Holdings, SoundHound, and Recursion Pharmaceuticals. This information was included in the 13F form it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. These investments give a glimpse of what Nvidia envisions as its path towards the future.
Arm Holdings is a chip designer, SoundHound, is a company that makes AI software for audio recognition, and Recursion is a biotechnology company. Nvidia is clearly gunning to be the frontrunner in the AI race
Before we begin to comprehend what this really means, let us begin by taking the first launch by the company. The race for supremacy in Generative AI mirrors the frenzy of the California Gold Rush, with Nvidia serving as the purveyor of the most coveted asset: graphic processing units (GPUs).
These GPUs stand as the linchpin for the training and execution of generative AI applications, furnishing data centers with the requisite computational might to forge ahead with AI-driven solutions.
Enter Chat with RTX, Nvidia’s new chatbot, empowering enterprises to harness AI within their employees’ local environments to supercharge productivity, without tethering to AI platforms hosted by OpenAI.
Nvidia is slowly and surely working to position itself as the leader of hardware and now software power for AI, along with the added democratisation layer. Jensen Huang, CEO, Nvidia, has gone on record to say that the company’s GPUs will make AI more accessible across multiple platforms.
This is even with Open AI’s chief Sam Altman, looking to overhaul the semiconductor industry by seeking trillions of dollars in investment, including the UAE government. Now, Chat with RTX is just a line up to Huang’s strategy. The bot already supports several file formats – pdf, text, xml, doc, etc. The data can be added to the bot’s library within seconds.
Added to this, users can also plug in a URL of their choice, and Chat with RTX simply loads the transcriptions, making it easier for people to look at the content.
Gen AI bots like ChatGPT have already grabbed millions of eyeballs and attention, and it still is on the rise. Sam Altman at the World Government Summit in Dubai also announced that ChatGPT 5 will be smarter than its predecessor.
But what Chat with RTX does is address the biggest concern that OpenAI is bringing up – privacy and security. OpenAI has had its fair share of hits there with the data breach in March last year, where over 1.2 million subscriber data was exposed, as pointed out by Menlo Security’s Reports.
With Chat with RTX’s personalised option, there is a push towards reducing privacy concerns. The chatbot acts like personal AI assistant on the laptop, where people can have conversations that are private.
In a blog talking about the chatbot, Jesse Clayton, Nvidia’s product manager stated that Chat with RTX runs locally on Windows RTX PCs and workstations, the results are faster, and the user’s data stays on the device.
Clayton explained that instead of relying on cloud based LLM (Large language models) services, the bot lets users process sensitive data on the local PC without the need to share it with a third party.
“Rather than searching through notes or saved content, users can simply type queries, one could ask, ‘What was the restaurant my partner recommended while in Las Vegas?’ and Chat with RTX will scan local files the user points it to and provide the answer with context,” said Clayton.
Menlo Security Report stated while the data that employees input on the LLMs are private and on their devices, it also means enterprises need to be vigilant to ensure that there is responsible use of generative AI.
All these trends continue to drive investor attention to Nvidia. The company continues to remain popular on Wall Street, even after a 50% run-up this year. It is the top pick for both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs analysts. Each has a $800 price target for Nvidia, projecting an 8 per cent upside to the stock. The company is set to report its earnings next Wednesday.
Now, with its investments in Arm, SoundHound, and Recursion, Nvidia is hedging its bets across different fields and sectors where AI can play a strong role.
(This article has been updated to reflect the Nvidia SEC filings)
