— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on February 22, 2024.
Google released a new generation open-source model called Gemma this Wednesday. The company stated that Gemma is built from the same research and technology behind its previously released closed AI model, Gemini. But unlike Gemini, Gemma can only process text information rather than multi-modal inputs.
As an open-source model, Gemma now is fully available for developers to use. The Gemma model has two main versions, 2B and 7B, meaning 2 billion parameters and 7 billion parameters respectively, to meet different development needs at various scales.
This move also signals Google's effort to catch up in the generative AI race, as there has been a concern in the market that generative AI could erode the market share of search engines. Some analysts believe that as the world's largest search engine, Google needs to present its ability to continuously grow to the market.
Ben Reitzes
Melius Research, Head of Technology Research
"The way I read it from Google, they are going to infuse more AI features into search. All this is to augment search, we need to have that aha moment that search is going to keep growing pretty close to double-digit so it doesn't drag us down and we just don't have it yet."
The undisputed winner in the current Gen-AI battle, NVIDIA, released its latest financial report overnight which showed that its revenue exceeded market expectations, leading to a significant increase in stock price after hours.
NVIDIA's fourth-quarter revenue was $22.1 billion, surpassing the expected $20.6 billion, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 22% and a year-on-year growth of about 265%. The majority of this revenue comes from the data center business, including AI chips, which saw a YoY growth of 409%, reaching around $18.4 billion. NVIDIA's stock price soared more than 8% in the after-hours.
Analysts believe that the demand for AI chips indeed exists and will continue to increase. The competition in the hardware sector has already begun, and what the public has yet to witness is the development in the generative AI software field, all of which bodes well for NVIDIA's business.
Byron Deeter
Bessemer Venture Partners
"I absolutely believe that the demand is there and increasing. So that hardware battle is on but I can tell you with very high confidence that this the iceberg under the surface that people can't yet see of software companies building in the public public markets, private markets soon be public markets, is unstoppable. There are hundreds of high quality venture backed companies that are emerging now that are starting to build up real scale."
NVIDIA has consistently dominated the market in AI chips, but competition for the GPU market is underway with companies like AMD, Intel, and other startups. Analysts suggest that it is crucial to assess the innovation speed of these companies and whether NVIDIA can sustain its leadership position.
The surge in generative AI is intensifying the battles in the chip sector. According to sources cited by tech-focused media The Information, Microsoft is currently developing a new network card aimed at competing with NVIDIA's ConnectX-7 card. The goal is to lessen reliance on NVIDIA, said the report. We will keep a close eye on this for you.