Nvidia's Mini AI Supercomputer Draws Scorn from Raja Koduri and Tiny Corp
Ladies and gentlemen, gather around and witness the drama that is unfolding in the tech world. Nvidia, the tech giant known for its groundbreaking GPUs and AI innovations, has unveiled its latest creation: the Project Digits AI supercomputer. With a price tag of $3,000, this pint-sized powerhouse promises to deliver 1 petaflop (PFLOPS) of AI computing performance, making it the smallest AI supercomputer in the world. Sounds impressive, right? Well, not everyone is clapping in awe.
Enter Raja Koduri, a seasoned graphics chip designer, and Tiny Corp, an AI server startup, who have taken it upon themselves to rain on Nvidia's parade. Their criticism? They claim that Nvidia's shiny new toy is nothing more than an overpriced gimmick that doesn't live up to its promises. So, is the Project Digits AI supercomputer a revolutionary device or just a fancy paperweight? Let’s dive in and find out.
The Glorious Launch of Project Digits
Nvidia's Project Digits was unveiled with much fanfare during the CES 2025 keynote by none other than Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. With his trademark leather jacket and a golden box in hand, Huang described Project Digits as a "personal AI supercomputer" designed to empower researchers, data scientists, and students. Built on the robust NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform, this tiny device promises to prototype, fine-tune, and deploy large-scale AI models—all from the comfort of your desktop.
The specs are undeniably impressive on paper. Powered by the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, Project Digits boasts 1 PFLOPS of AI performance at FP4 precision, 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, and a 20-core Grace CPU. It also supports Nvidia's AI software library, including development kits, orchestration tools, and pre-trained models. The device is priced at $3,000 and is set to launch in May 2025.
