Nvidia (NVDA) is best known for its highly coveted artificial intelligence chips. But at its Nvidia AI Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, the Nvidia vice president of Enterprise Platforms, Bob Pette, delivered an address providing greater insights into the company’s various software platforms.
Nvidia says companies ranging from AT&T (T), Deloitte, and Quantiphi to research centers like the National Cancer Institute and the SETI Institute are using its software technologies to do everything from helping employees work through software development and network engineering jobs to searching for signs of extraterrestrial life.
Nvidia has a number of AI software platforms including Nvidia NIM Agent Blueprints, Nvidia NIM, and Nvidia NeMo. NIM Agent Blueprints is designed to help businesses develop generative AI applications, while NIM provides the ability to quickly put together chatbots and AI assistants. Nvidia NeMo gives companies the means to build their own custom generative AI models.
Shares of Nvidia rose 3.7% following the announcement.
The offerings are part of Nvidia’s strategy of ensuring that companies don’t just look to the company for AI processors but also for its software as well, driving additional revenue streams outside of hardware sales.
According to Nvidia, AT&T is teaming with Quantiphi to create a conversational AI platform to assist employees with software development and financial services tasks. The University of Florida is using Nvidia’s NIM and MeMo to improve its learning management system for teaching assistants, and Deloitte is using Nvidia’s NIM Agent Blueprint alongside its own cybersecurity products.
Nvidia says the National Cancer Institute is using NIM Agent Blueprint to help cut down on the time and cost of developing novel drug molecules, while the SETI Institute used the company’s Holoscan software development kit to create software for receiving and analyzing radio waves from space.
Nvidia is also teaming with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh as part of its new AI Tech Community initiative, establishing two new AI centers at the schools. The company says its Nvidia Joint Center with Carnegie Mellon University for Robotics, Autonomy, and AI will provide students, faculty, and researchers with technologies related to robotics and autonomy, while the Nvidia Joint Center with the University of Pittsburgh for AI and Intelligent Systems will revolve around AI focused on health sciences.
Nvidia has developed the most sought-after AI chips in the world, which has sent its stock price skyrocketing a staggering 934% over the last two years. To put that in perspective, and maybe generate some envy, if you invested $10,000 in Nvidia in 2022, your stake would now be worth $103,400.
But the company is facing increasing competition in the hardware space from longtime rivals AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC). Nvidia’s own customers are also developing their own chips to power their AI software, which could cut into the company’s bottom line in the future.
Nvidia’s endgame is to use software to hold on to its customers well into the future while providing recurring revenue streams.
Highlighting its software also attracts developers to Nvidia’s offerings, and the more developers that build on Nvidia’s services, the more companies will seek out those platforms.
Nvidia’s hardware lead isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, though. The company has been investing in AI technology for years, and it should continue to hold on to its competitive edge for some time. But by showing off its software, Nvidia is looking to prove it’s more than just a chip firm.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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