Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang addresses "emotional" customer reactions amid product shortages

[midian182]

In brief: Any shortage of in-demand products can cause tension among customers, especially when the items in question are Nvidia's GPUs. CEO Jensen Huang says the issue has reached a point where businesses such as data center operators are becoming "emotional" due to the lack of Team Green's chips.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs tech conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Huang talked about the incredible demand for Nvidia's products, noting that every customer wants to be the first to receive them and have more than anyone else. It's a demand that Team Green is often struggling to meet.

"We have a lot of people on our shoulders, and everybody is counting on us," Huang said. "Demand is so great that delivery of our components, our technology, infrastructure, and software is really emotional for people."

The next-generation Blackwell AI chips have been in especially high demand. However, Huang assured customers that the suppliers to which Nvidia has outsourced production of these chips are making progress in catching up.

"We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It's tense. We're trying to do the best we can," Huang said.

At the start of August, two anonymous sources involved with Nvidia's chip and server hardware production said that the Blackwell AI chips were facing significant delays due to design flaws discovered late in manufacturing. Manufacturer TSMC had apparently discovered a problem with the processor die connecting two Blackwell GPUs on a GB200 chip.

It was believed that the production issue would push Blackwell AI chips' shipment dates back by two to three months, delaying their arrival to the first quarter of 2025. That's bad news for the likes of Google and Meta, who have both reportedly spent $10 billion on orders for GB200 chips.

Also read: AMD confirms it won't prioritize competing with Nvidia's top gaming GPUs

Nvidia tried to alleviate fears around Blackwell's delays during an earnings call last month when it said it would ship billions of dollars worth of the new GPUs by the fourth quarter. Whether it's able to live up to this promise will likely have a big impact on the company's share price.

There have been questions recently about whether the massive amounts of money being spent on AI hardware and software is offering a good return on investment – concerns that the AI bubble might burst rose following Nvidia's and other tech giants' crashing stock prices earlier this month. Huang's response was that companies have no choice other than to embrace "accelerated computing."

The Nvidia boss was also asked about the prospect of China invading Taiwan, which could cut Nvidia off from TSMC. He said that much of Nvidia's tech is developed in-house, allowing it to easily switch orders to an alternative supplier, though he admitted this would likely result in a reduction in quality.

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang addresses "emotional" customer reactions amid product shortages

 

[redgarl]

Hmmm...

"Manufacturer TSMC had apparently discovered a problem with the processor die connecting two Blackwell GPUs on a GB200 chip."

So it seems AMD solution for chiplet design makes way more sense than the route chosen by Nvidia. I was not expecting this delay to be a packaging issue of the sort.

 

[NumberNine]

It's so crazy to me that what has become our transactional norms of paying first to get something later is just such a generous stance towards corporations... As time goes on the overton window moves further in that direction. Salaries adjusted for tipping, corporate welfare, leaning on government welfare to keep employee wages low, etc. Call it normal, call it capitalism, call it what you like but the world could do better, it just can't find the incentive within itself when there is so much more profit to be taken. Greed. False promises, every financial, governmental, and psychological advantage possible.

Mankind made a choice and we chose money. I am a capitalist, make no mistake, so much so that I can see we've weaponized it against the poor. Do better. I hope this completely self aware bubble pops in a truly devistating way for everyone who drove it.

 

[MarcusNumb]

Holy s***, if I paid 100M USD in advance for an order, ofcourse I would be freaking emotional if that order arrived on time. Now you tell me that order would delay 3 months, I would freaking cry when I received that order.

 

[Porkous]

AFAIK competition side has similarly powerful chips... They are not sold in big chunks with storage ram and CPU, but the GPU ?
If software is so good on nv, why not replicate it in other hardware, yourself ? Instead of spending 10 billions and have to deal with this situation... Replicate the darn software... How hard would it be to create your own.


"The way that AMD is trying to compete is to offer value and performance," he said. "They're not going to provide you the full stack of software and predefined libraries"


Is like saying a software should cost more than the hardware

 

[toooooot]

AFAIK competition side has similarly powerful chips... They are not sold in big chunks with storage ram and CPU, but the GPU ?
If software is so good on nv, why not replicate it in other hardware, yourself ? Instead of spending 10 billions and have to deal with this situation... Replicate the darn software... How hard would it be to create your own.

Look around, there are dozens of companies working on it right now, including Intel and AMD. It is just the first one gets a head start. I would guess, due to high demand of this hardware, there is even higher demand for people who make it. Add to that China that can offer x2, x3 times more money of you are brave enough to most likely break the agreement you signed with the western company before they taught you.
Nvidia had years and years of excellency leading to this moment. It pays off, just like it does for TSMC.

 

[Porkous]

Nvidia had years and years of excellency leading to this moment. It pays off, just like it does for TSMC.

It had indeed, but feels like a bubble that is over inflated. Usually the industry moves together.