Nvidia postpones launch of the new Blackwell AI GPUs

Nvidia has apparently postponed the launch of its highly anticipated Blackwell AI GPUs from late 2024 to the first quarter of 2025. This has been reported by consistent sources both within Nvidia and from Microsoft. According to insiders directly involved in the development of the chips and server hardware, this decision was made despite the recent provision of engineering samples. This delay particularly affects prominent customers such as Microsoft, Meta, and xAI, who recently announced a large order of 300,000 B200 GPUs. Nvidia is expected to be able to fulfill these orders at the earliest in the second quarter of 2025. Meta had already expressed doubts about Nvidia's ability to deliver the Blackwell GPUs this year. One of the main reasons for the postponement is supposed design flaws. It appears that Nvidia prefers to take the necessary time to address any deficiencies rather than bringing an unstable product to market. This is reminiscent of AMD's delay of the Ryzen 9000 series or the instability issues Intel faced with its 13th and 14th generation Core processors. The significance of this decision is underscored by the high price of the Blackwell AI superchips, which can cost up to $70,000, while a complete server rack can reach up to $3 million. Given the planned sales of 60,000 to 70,000 complete AI servers, Nvidia cannot afford to risk errors that could result in loss of customer trust and potential lawsuits. Nvidia can afford this delay as the company dominated 98% of the data center GPU market in 2023. Even if AMD were to bring a competitive product to market, it would take some time to reach Nvidia's market share. Despite this market dominance, Nvidia cannot afford to rest on its laurels. Major customers such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are investing in hardware research to develop their own AI products. To maintain its leading position and continue being one of the most valuable companies in the world, Nvidia must ensure that the Blackwell launch succeeds within the new timeframe.