Nvidia pledged to invest $100 million to build a new supercomputer for the UK

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pledged to invest at least $100 million to build a supercomputer in the UK to demonstrate its commitment to the UK’s high-tech industry and scientific research. In fact, in October 2020, Nvidia announced that it will build the UK’s most powerful supercomputer in Cambridge. It plans to invest 40 million pounds in the project, but it seems that the final cost will be a lot more.

According to Reuters, at The Six Five Summit event, Jensen Huang stated that investing 100 million US dollars on this supercomputer called Cambridge-1 was just a starting point. As a large investment project, it will be the most powerful supercomputer in the UK, and researchers will be very excited.

Unlike Intel and AMD, NVIDIA is unable to develop a platform for supercomputers due to a lack of key processor IP. HPC is a lucrative field. NVIDIA has been coveting it for a long time. In order to obtain competitive processor technology, it is seeking to acquire ARM for $40 billion, hoping to solve this problem in the next few years. As a leading CPU research and development company in the industry, ARM has received support from many manufacturers. It would make more sense to use acquisitions instead of developing CPU technology by itself. At the same time, it can also make NVIDIA more competitive in other fields, including smartphones, smart homes, smart wearable devices, self-driving cars, and other emerging electronic products.

In many people’s eyes, NVIDIA’s move may be part of an effort to persuade British regulators to believe that NVIDIA’s acquisition of ARM will have a positive impact. At present, NVIDIA is facing strict review by regulatory agencies around the world, and it is not easy to obtain approval when it involves antitrust issues.