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Interest in ChatGPT and similar AI applications has led to the price of the Nvidia H100 going up to around $40,000. Crypto mining is seeing a lull as Ethereum gears up for its upgrade.
The rise of ChatGPT and similar AI tools has led to a sharp increase in the demand for Nvidia GPUs. Both high-profile individuals in the tech industry, like John Carmack, and the general public have taken note of the inflated prices.
Nvidia H100 Price on the Rise
Nvidia’s H100 deep learning GPU has increased to a whopping $40,000 per unit, with some sellers even pitching it for a few thousand dollars more. Such units focused on specialized applications are already in the range of thousands of dollars, so the fact that they have increased is even more telling of the demand. The retail price of the H100 was somewhere under $35,000 before.
It should be noted that the units in the screenshot from eBay below are listed for sale at prices between $42,672 and $45,000, but BeInCrypto was unable to verify any completed sales at these prices.
The use of hardware such as the H100 to build language learning models and its applications in AI has made it a highly sought-after commodity over the years. The computational power required by these models is high, hence the demand for hardware such as Nvidia’s.
Companies will likely produce new types of hardware to meet the demand. The tech industry has already set 2023 to be one of the most exciting years, and the potential for new ChatGPT models is exciting the public.
ChatGPT and AI Cause High Demand for H100
The rise of new AI applications, especially ChatGPT and its alternatives, has predictably led to an increase in related hardware. Major cloud computing players are now offering the H100 series, also known as Hopper GPUs, to keep up with the increasing demand. The H100 is the most powerful GPU for AI, according to Nvidia. Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle will all offer cloud support for these much-desired GPUs.
ChatGPT itself was trained on Nvidia GPUs. In fact, it used as many as 10,000 GPUs for its training model. The development of the space indicates that generative AI will drive even more demand in the years to come.
Crypto Mining Hype Cools After ETH Switches to PoS
While the AI industry has been taking off, the crypto-mining industry is experiencing something of a lull. The hype for this market has slowed. The asset class took a huge hit last year after Ethereum switched to a proof-of-stake mechanism.
The upcoming Ethereum upgrade, which will enable stakers to unstake their ETH, has now fully caught the attention of investors. All discussion is focused on this right now; however, with Bitcoin looking up, it may be the case that the conversation shifts back to mining in the near future.