Competition in the AI Semiconductor Market Heats Up

The growing demand for Alphabet Inc.'s Google's AI-powered Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) semiconductor could pose a significant threat to Nvidia Corporation's dominance in the field, according to an analysis published by independent analyst and consultancy firm Omdia on Wednesday.

Omdia's Principal Analyst Alexander Harrowell noted that while exact figures are not known, the increasing interest in Google's Cloud Platform services and its growing profitability seem strong enough to "take share from Nvidia for the first time." This shift could be influenced by Google's TPUs, which are estimated to account for between $6bn and $9bn, depending on the breakdown between compute and networking devices.

Broadcom's CEO Hock Tan has also revised up his target for AI semiconductor revenue, aiming for $12bn this year. This figure includes a substantial number of Meta's MTIA chips, with a project for a mysterious third client expected to ramp up in 2025, as Omdia explained.