The On-Device AI Hardware Race
It’s looking increasingly certain that we’ll run LLMs directly on our devices rather than through cloud subscriptions. The race to build efficient, AI-native hardware is in full swing.
Arduino launched the Ventuno Q, built specifically for AI models and robotics, at $299 for pre-order.
Apple announced the new Mac Mini M6, delivering 4x better AI performance than the previous generation, at $899.
OpenAI’s “New” Chip Announcement
If you’ve been following the newsletter, you’ll recall we reported that OpenAI was developing a custom AI chip with Broadcom. This week, Sam Altman tweeted that they made a chip and it’s fast. They shared Jalapeno’s performance results on running open-source models. And if you read last week’s OpenAI story about the wave of executive exits ahead of the IPO, you might remember us wondering how they’d manage the chaos. Well, now we know. 🙂
@arduino → | openai.com → | @sama →
An Unusual Startup Acquisition
Nvidia struck a deal with Poolside, an AI infrastructure startup: a $6 billion non-exclusive license to use their model factory technology, plus a $1 billion investment. They will also hire more than 100 Poolside employees, while the founders stay on and the company continues operating independently. Unlike a classic acqui-hire, Nvidia gets the most valuable asset and the engineers behind it without buying the company outright. Given that the total deal value is roughly 10x everything Poolside has raised to date, some called it a stealth acquisition. But Nvidia may be structuring it this way precisely to avoid the regulatory requirements that a formal acquisition would trigger.
⚡️ Quick Bits
• ChatGPT ads are coming to Europe. digiday.com →
• Anthropic is telling investors its total addressable market is nearly equal to the entire US GDP ($30 trillion). gizmodo.com →
• Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Brain and Coursera, has a new AI course. @andrewyng →
• Amazon‘s robotaxis are hitting the road. wsj.com →
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