Jensen Huang Urges Taiwan Suppliers to Boost AI Chip Production Amid Surging Demand 
Nvidia Nears $20 Billion OpenAI Investment as AI Funding Race Intensifies 
Elon Musk’s Empire: SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI Merger Talks Spark Investor Debate 
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says AI Investment Boom Is Just Beginning as NVDA Shares Surge 
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Acquires xAI in Historic Deal Uniting Space and Artificial Intelligence 
Nintendo Shares Slide After Earnings Miss Raises Switch 2 Margin Concerns 
SpaceX Seeks FCC Approval for Massive Solar-Powered Satellite Network to Support AI Data Centers 
SpaceX Updates Starlink Privacy Policy to Allow AI Training as xAI Merger Talks and IPO Loom 
Nvidia Confirms Major OpenAI Investment Amid AI Funding Race 
Baidu Approves $5 Billion Share Buyback and Plans First-Ever Dividend in 2026 
SoftBank and Intel Partner to Develop Next-Generation Memory Chips for AI Data Centers 
Global PC Makers Eye Chinese Memory Chip Suppliers Amid Ongoing Supply Crunch 
Tencent Shares Slide After WeChat Restricts YuanBao AI Promotional Links 
OpenAI Expands Enterprise AI Strategy With Major Hiring Push Ahead of New Business Offering 
Google Cloud and Liberty Global Forge Strategic AI Partnership to Transform European Telecom Services 
Nvidia, ByteDance, and the U.S.-China AI Chip Standoff Over H200 Exports 
TSMC Eyes 3nm Chip Production in Japan with $17 Billion Kumamoto Investment 
In anticipation of rising tech tensions between the US and China, leading Chinese technology companies have been amassing high-performance graphic processing units (GPUs), especially those from Nvidia, to ensure their AI development projects remain uninterrupted.
Strategic Moves by Tech Titans
Companies like Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba have been proactive in securing these essential AI components. According to the Financial Times, these firms collectively placed orders for around 100,000 A800 processors from Nvidia, scheduled for delivery this year, in a deal worth approximately $4 billion. Furthermore, they have also committed to buying $1 billion worth of GPUs for 2024 delivery.
Baidu's CEO, Robin Li, during an earnings call, highlighted the company's readiness with enough AI chips to support its ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot for the next one or two years. He acknowledged that while inference tasks need less powerful chips, their current reserves and other alternatives should suffice for various AI-native applications for end-users.
Impact on AI Development Pace
Li also noted that difficulties in acquiring the most advanced chips could slow AI development in China. This has led Baidu and other tech giants to actively seek alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs.
AI's Bold Move in the LLM Market
Despite these challenges, there are success stories like 01.AI, established by renowned investor Kai-Fu Lee. The company managed to acquire a significant number of high-performance inference chips and has already cleared its debts after securing a valuation of $1 billion. This showcases that startups, with the right funding, can still make impactful entries into the large language model (LLM) market.
Baidu's Continued Advancements
With its GPU reserve, Baidu recently launched Ernie Bot 4. Li claimed this model is comparable in capability to GPT-4, underscoring Baidu's competitive stance in the AI industry.
Chinese tech giants are strategically stocking up on Nvidia GPUs to maintain their AI development momentum amid escalating US-China tech tensions.
