Observed Signal · Mar 29, 2024 · Technical Release · Source: Trending Topics · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Cathie Wood: Nvidia's Blackwell Chip Is an AI Gamechanger
Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Invest, writes a guest commentary on Nvidia's new Blackwell chip, unveiled at GTC 2024. The chip offers 2.5x the FLOPs of its predecessor Hopper and uses two dies in one package, enabling data centers to train GPT-4-level models with about a quarter of the GPUs and energy. It also boosts AI inference performance fivefold with a new 4-bit precision format. Wood notes that Ark Invest previously held Nvidia shares but has since sold them. The article also discusses Nvidia's NIMS microservices and strong demand from customers like Microsoft and Meta. Separately, a second news item on the page covers Austrian startup Serwas Technologies closing a pre-seed round of nearly €300,000 led by Gateway Ventures to deploy servers in buildings for direct heat reuse.
Nvidia's Blackwell chip is a significant advancement in AI infrastructure that underpins the AdTech and MarTech ecosystem, enabling more efficient AI model training and inference, which is crucial for AI-driven advertising tools.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Nvidia announced the Blackwell chip in March 2024, offering 2.5x more FLOPs than Hopper.
- Blackwell enables training GPT-4-level models with about 25% of the GPUs and energy compared to standard data centers.
- The chip improves AI inference performance by 5x via a new 4-bit numeric precision format.
- Nvidia unveiled Nvidia Inference Microservices (NIMS), pre-built AI models expected to boost recurring software revenue.
- Ark Invest, led by Cathie Wood, has sold its Nvidia positions.
- Serwas Technologies closed a pre-seed round of approximately €300,000, led by Gateway Ventures.
Connected Companies & Entities
6 Entities mapped“Nvidia-CEO Jensen Huang stellte den Blackwell-Chip vor, ein Wunderwerk der Ingenieurskunst......”
“Das Unternehmen ist nun besser darauf vorbereitet, die Anforderungen von großen Kunden wie Microsoft und Meta zu erfüllen....”
“Das Unternehmen ist nun besser darauf vorbereitet, die Anforderungen von großen Kunden wie Microsoft und Meta zu erfüllen....”
“Darüber hinaus wurde auf der Konferenz das wachsende Ökosystem von Nvidia in den Vordergrund gerückt, in dem sich Unternehmen wie ServiceNow...”
“Darüber hinaus wurde auf der Konferenz das wachsende Ökosystem von Nvidia in den Vordergrund gerückt, in dem sich Unternehmen wie ServiceNow...”
“Knapp 300.000 Euro kommen zusammen, angeführt von Gateway Ventures als Lead-Investor....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
AWNY, Jupiter Fest Spotlight Agentic Ads and Open Web
Advertising Week New York and the inaugural Jupiter Festival Miami highlighted the industry's shift toward agentic advertising and anxieties about the open web's future. Major announcements included TikTok's off-platform ad expansion and a new AI shopping agent, Meta's AI campaign assistant testing, and OpenAI's visual ads introduction. Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closed, forming Skydance. Key themes were the threat of AI to publisher traffic, the rise of AI visibility tools, the early stage of agentic media buying, unsolved cross-platform measurement, and the booming sports and retail media sectors. Deals included PubX's acquisition of Compliant and a $5 million Series A, and OpenAI's reported $30 billion round talks with BlackRock and UAE investors.
ICANN Receives 1,615 New Top-Level Domain Applications
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has accepted applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for the first time since 2012. A total of 1,615 applications were submitted by 481 applicants, with a strong focus on AI-related domains. Ten companies, including Meta and OpenAI, applied for .agent, seven for .agi, and six for .asi. Meta filed 21 applications, including .instagram and .threads, while OpenAI filed 15, including .chatgpt and .codex. German entities like Adidas, Biontech, and Allianz also applied for brand-specific domains. The application fee can be up to $227,000 per domain. The article also highlights the financial success of country-code TLDs like .ai, which earned Anguilla about €59 million by November 2025.
Nvidia RTX Spark AI Laptops Launch, Starting at 3,300 Euro
Microsoft, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and MSI have announced Windows laptops featuring Nvidia's new RTX Spark ARM chip, the N1X. These devices are now available for pre-order, with deliveries starting October 16. The RTX Spark is closely related to the GB10 processor in Nvidia's DGX Spark mini-PC, but comes in two variants with different CPU and GPU core counts. Prices range from 2,900 Euro for the base Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra to 6,700 Euro for the top-end Asus ProArt 16. The laptops are positioned for AI workloads, marking the first time Nvidia's fast AI chip is available in Windows machines. Nvidia also plans to offer Windows on its stationary DGX Spark systems.
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