Following the launch of the NVIDIA H100 AI GPU, buyers went into a shopping frenzy, stockpiling this chip. This is a result of the supply issue that this chip faced at launch, making it hard to come by and question its future availability. As this chip becomes more accessible in the market, some buyers that stockpiled it at launch are moving to sell the chips in their possession to other firms.
Others are reducing their order of this chip from NVIDIA as there are enough supplies for more buyers. Those reselling their stockpiled NVIDIA H100 AI GPU are also cutting maintenance costs for themselves while getting some money back on their excessive purchase. Firms offering cloud services like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft play a significant role in making this chip available for purchase.
These firms are now making it easier for smaller firms in need of this chip to rent it for usage. Most users who are waiting to purchase the H100 AI GPU now choose to rent the chips instead of purchasing them from NVIDIA. This helps to ease the demand for this AI chip in the market, hence freeing up the waitlist, and giving others access to purchase these chips.
Other big firms that stockpiled this chip are now using this window to sell out excess chips in their possession to buyers in need. The AI industry is now freeing itself from the challenges that it faced last year due to the unavailability of these AI chips for purchase. But this doesn’t mean that the problems of the AI industry concerning chips are over, as the demand for chips is growing stronger.
The likes of AMD have moved to launch their AI chips, giving firms options when shopping for an AI GPU. Renting these chips to firms also poses another challenge, as there might be a delay in getting the amount of chips needed to operate their AI models. In the coming months, these issues might further ease, giving the AI industry more room to grow thanks to the availability of necessary chips.