Nvidia, the world's most valuable listed chip company, is building Israel's most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer, called Israel-1, to meet the soaring customer demand for AI applications. The cloud-based system is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and be partly operational by the end of 2023. Israel-1 is developed by the former Mellanox team, which Nvidia bought in 2019 for nearly $7 billion, outbidding Intel Corp. The system is expected to deliver performance of up to eight exaflops of AI computing, making it one of the world's fastest AI supercomputers.

Why Israel?

Nvidia's decision to build Israel-1 in Israel is not surprising, given the country's reputation as a tech hub. Israel is home to more than 6,000 startups, and its tech industry is worth an estimated $18.5 billion. Nvidia has worked with 800 startups in Israel and tens of thousands of software engineers.

Resources and Technology

Israel-1 is based on Nvidia's newly launched Spectrum-X networking platform, a high-performance ethernet architecture purposely built for generative AI workloads. The platform is tailored to meet the needs of AI workloads, which require high bandwidth and low latency. Israel-1 will be trained using huge amounts of data, and it is expected to accelerate generative AI and machine learning.

Implications

Israel-1 could reshape the tech landscape in Israel and globally. The supercomputer will enable researchers and developers to process vast amounts of data and train AI models more quickly and efficiently. This will accelerate innovation in various fields, including healthcare, finance, and transportation. Israel-1 will also help Nvidia maintain its position as a leader in the AI industry.

Nvidia's decision to build Israel-1 in Israel is a testament to the country's reputation as a tech hub. Israel-1 is expected to deliver performance of up to eight exaflops of AI computing, making it one of the world's fastest AI supercomputers. The system will enable researchers and developers to process vast amounts of data and train AI models more quickly and efficiently, accelerating innovation in various fields. Israel-1 could reshape the tech landscape in Israel and globally, and it will help Nvidia maintain its position as a leader in the AI industry.