NVIDIA is now planning to aggressively focus on the AI-driven robotics segment in the coming year – 2025 with its new compact computers. This won’t be surprising though, considering how AI companies are now looking at breaching the next frontiers — AGI and AI robots. ChatGPT maker OpenAI is set to make a return to robotics with fully-fledged humanoid robots.
As part of this strategy, NVIDIA – which joined OpenAI’s list of investors this year – is launching a new generation of compact computers for humanoid robots, ‘Jetson Thor,’ confirms a recent report in the Financial Times.
NVIDIA’s transition towards AI-driven robotics is said to be due to two major factors: first, the rapid development and growth of generative AI models, and second, advances in simulation technology that now allow robots to be trained in virtual environments.
NVIDIA’s Vice President of Robotics, Deepu Talla, confirms that these factors are the main forces propelling the company’s strategic push into robotics, as revealed in his discussion with the FT. However, NVIDIA’s strategy regarding this sector becomes more interesting as the company will not directly compete with robot manufacturers like Tesla and Xpeng.
Instead, NVIDIA (with a valuation surpassing $3.6 trillion in November this year) aims to position itself as an essential supplier of technology, such as AI chips, computers, and software, for various robot manufacturers worldwide. In simple terms, NVIDIA wants to be the leading technology provider for many companies that are building robots, rather than making robots itself.
The humanoid robot market is set to expand from a paltry $2.98 billion in 2024 to gigantic $243.40Bn industry by 2035, with a CAGR of 49.21% throughout the forecast period. The humanoid robot market worldwide is segmented into multiple areas of application, such as education, entertainment, inspection, maintenance, material handling, personal assistance, caregiving, public relations, research, space exploration, search and rescue, and security surveillance. The data also shows that North America dominates the humanoid robot market, accounting for the largest share globally.
As physical AI and robotics are seen as the next big tech evolution, NVIDIA’s push into robotics comes at a time when the company is facing increased competition for its powerful AI chips from rival chipmakers like AMD. But there is one more factor making NVIDIA uncomfortable, as cloud computing giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are looking to reduce their dependency on the US semiconductor giant. For example, in July this year, Apple revealed in a published research paper that it has chosen Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) over NVIDIA’s GPUs for its new ‘Apple Intelligence’ AI models.
