Part 4/9:
The move is significant as it sets a precedent for a larger trend where AI labs—historically reliant on Nvidia—may turn to custom solutions. The deployment of a 400,000-chip cluster tailored for Anthropic, known as Project Rainer, is poised to help the lab achieve its ambitious computing goals while minimizing costs.
Part Two: Building Custom Chips
Nvidia has long enjoyed an overwhelming 98% market share among GPUs for data centers, though recent years have seen a financial dip, dropping to around 92%. This slight decline indicates that cloud providers are increasingly reluctant to depend solely on one supplier, prompting a surge in competition amidst rising demand for AI hardware.