Saudi Arabia and UAE Race To Buy Nvidia Chips To Power AI Ambitions (theverge.com) 15
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are buying up thousands of the high-performance Nvidia chips crucial for building artificial intelligence software, joining a global AI arms race that is squeezing the supply of Silicon Valley's hottest commodity. From a report: The Gulf powerhouses have publicly stated their goal of becoming leaders in AI as they pursue ambitious plans to turbocharge their economies. But the push has also raised concerns about potential misuse of the technology by the oil-rich states' autocratic leaders. According to people familiar with the moves, Saudi Arabia has bought at least 3,000 of Nvidia's H100 chips -- a $40,000 processor described by Nvidia chief Jensen Huang as "the world's first computer [chip] designed for generative AI" -- via the public research institution King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust).
Meanwhile, the UAE has also secured access to thousands of Nvidia chips and has already developed its own open-source large language model, known as Falcon, at the state-owned Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. "The UAE has made a decision that it wants toâ...âown and control its own computational power and talent, have their own platforms and not be dependent on the Chinese or the Americans," said a person familiar with Abu Dhabi's thinking.
Meanwhile, the UAE has also secured access to thousands of Nvidia chips and has already developed its own open-source large language model, known as Falcon, at the state-owned Technology Innovation Institute in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. "The UAE has made a decision that it wants toâ...âown and control its own computational power and talent, have their own platforms and not be dependent on the Chinese or the Americans," said a person familiar with Abu Dhabi's thinking.
Oil is going to go away (Score:2)
And that's before we talk about anyone left who can afford a car switching to electric, much of which will be powered by wind & solar or at worst locally sourced natural gas.
Sure, they'll still be demand for oil, but probably not
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If you're citing American car pricing, that has more to do with American manufacturers converting their profit model off of manufacturing and into car purchase "financing". The rising price has more to do with the "financialization of main street" than real inflation. Car loans will become the next student loans. You're better off buying used with cash, or buy a Tesla when they release the Model 2.
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That's what screwed GM and Chrysler/Fiat in 2007. The potential collapse of the banking industry should not have directly touched "main street" manufacturing businesses, but they were poised to collapse. The reason was that those companies (particularly GM) made their profits from car loans, not the manufacture of cars they sold. Ironically, Ford was able to weather the financial storm, because they had been under bankruptcy courts, and just didn't have the capital (or credit) to make profits by car fina
The other half? (Score:2)
Ignoring engineering prowess in improving algorithm, the other half of the AI equation is data. How do they plan on getting that?
Hm, nevermind. Sorry I asked.
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Lets say it actually is the other 95%. Simple: They are not going to be able to do it. What they will try is buy experts abroad (because their own academic system sucks deeply) and that will fail as there are not enough and these experts can go to places a lot nicer instead. Hence all that will result from this is a pile of expensive hardware rotting somewhere and a possible shortage in other places.
There are really demented projects they are trying to buy themselves a future with, like that insane "The Lin
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What they will try is buy experts abroad (because their own academic system sucks deeply) and that will fail as there are not enough and these experts can go to places a lot nicer instead.
They will succeed. They have a history of paying stupid money for foreign contractors. If you're single and male and have the degree you can take a three year contract and bank fuck-you-money in your currency of preference.
What will actually happen is that as soon as the oil money is gone, everything there will crumble and everybody will forget about them.
While this is true, it won't happen in your lifetime. It may not happen in the lifetime of the modern global economic system. Like Norway, Saudi Arabia has been diversifying their sovereign wealth fund. They own many many things which have nothing to do with oil. They are going to b
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Oh, sure, they may be able to fake something for a while. Money can do that. But they do not pay well enough to get real experts and their investments will not be enough to let them survive. That society is _wasteful_ like no other.
Diesel-Powered AI (Score:2)
You don't think this will be solar powered, do you?
I guess it's better than coal-fired.
Reckless spending or good investment? (Score:3)
Is dropping $120 million on an AI research endeavor wasteful spending if you're Saudi Arabia? Are there multi-billion dollar companies that would hesitate to make a $120 million on hardware for a development project? Seems to me the hardware spending is pointless unless they have enough cutting edge AI researchers to make something useful out of the hardware.
own and control (Score:2)
Good (Score:1)
They are gonna rent their resources to Chinese companies as cloud services, completely shattering plans of that Biden administration buffon Sullivan.
Fuck Saudi Arabia (Score:1)