Leading AI chip maker Nvidia has launched a “robot brain” designed for a new generation of ultra-powerful humanoid machines.
The Jetson AGX Thor chip is 7.5x faster than the company’s previous generation, and can be installed in production-ready robots built by the likes of Amazon and Meta.
Costing $3,499, the new chip is capable of running generative AI models like ChatGPT in order to interact with humans, while also supporting visual models to interpret the world around them.
The artificial intelligence boom that ensued the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022 has seen Nvidia’s share price rise 10-fold in less than three years.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang now sees robotics as the US firm’s biggest growth opportunity over the coming years.
“We’ve built Jetson Thor for the millions of developers working on robotic systems that interact with and increasingly shape the physical world,” Mr Huang said.
“With unmatched performance and energy efficiency, and the ability to run multiple generative AI models at the edge, Jetson Thor is the ultimate supercomputer to drive the age of physical AI and general robotics.”
Nvidia already counts leading robot brands Boston Dynamics, Figure and Agility Robotics as customers, however chips for these machines only account for less than 1 per cent of the company’s revenue.
Beyond humanoids, future use cases for Nvidia’s Jetson chips could include advanced self-driving cars that are fully automated.
Short term applications will likely be within domestic and industrial robots capable of operating in complex and unstructured environments.
“The future of robotics in logistics depends on the ability to deploy increasingly intelligent and autonomous systems,” said Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics.
“Nvidia Jetson Thor offers the computational horsepower and energy efficiency necessary to develop and scale the next generation of AI-powered robots that can operate safely and effectively in dynamic, real-world environments, transforming how we move and manage goods globally.”
