NVIDIA Blackwell: Soaring Pre-Order Prices for AI Supremacy

This March, at the GTC 2024 conference held at the San Jose Convention Center in California, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang introduced the Blackwell architecture GPUs, including the B200 GPU, which will replace the H100/H200, and the GB200, which combines with the Grace CPU. Future releases will include various other specifications and types of products.

According to Wccftech, the Blackwell architecture-based chips are currently the world’s fastest AI chips and the most expensive to date. Although NVIDIA will begin shipping products based on the Blackwell architecture in the latter half of this year, the preorder prices have already soared significantly. Analysts from HSBC project that the GB200 NVL36/NVL72 computing platforms will be priced at $1.8 million and $3 million, respectively, with the GB200 priced between $60,000 and $70,000, and the B100 priced between $30,000 and $35,000.

The analysts’ pricing estimates may not fully account for market conditions, such as purchase volume and other factors. Depending on the type and quantity of orders from different buyers, the actual figures could vary higher or lower. Compared to previous generations, products based on the Blackwell architecture are still more expensive.

Beyond the high demand in the AI market affecting supply and demand, the substantial development costs of the Blackwell architecture may also be a contributing factor. Reports indicate that NVIDIA invested $10 billion in developing the Blackwell architecture platform to meet market expectations for new products, marking a record-breaking investment in R&D.