Artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader NVIDIA's (NVDA +2.57%) GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2024 has begun. It will run Monday through Thursday at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. It's the first time since 2019 that this annual happening, widely considered the world's premier AI event, will be an in-person gathering.
CEO Jensen Huang is kicking off the conference with a two-hour keynote address on Monday starting at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET. Folks who are not attending can watch virtually.
What can investors expect from GTC 2024?
Investors can expect the tech giant to announce a slew of new products and partnerships across its target markets, which include data center, gaming, professional visualization, and automotive. The data center platform should garner the bulk of Nvidia's conference focus. This business is its largest and fastest-growing by revenue, and offers the most products and services for helping customers enable AI capabilities.
In particular, investors can expect the company to provide details about its B100 graphics processing units (GPUs) for processing AI and high-performance computing workloads. They are based on Nvidia's next-generation architecture, Blackwell, and should have significantly increased processing power compared with GPUs based on its Hopper architecture.
On Nvidia's quarterly earnings call last month, CFO Colette Kress said, "We expect our next-generation products to be supply constrained as demand far exceeds supply."
The event includes an impressive slate of speakers from Nvidia and other top companies, AI start-ups, and other entities working in the AI space. These include representatives from big tech behemoths such as Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.
Other than Nvidia, the company name that many investors might most associate with AI is OpenAI -- and a speaker from that privately held company is on the GTC itinerary.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
Generative AI should make this year's GTC more exciting than usual
The main reason this year's GTC has surely been more eagerly anticipated than usual among investors, tech enthusiasts, and entities across sectors and geographic regions can be summed up in three words: generative artificial intelligence.
This tech exploded onto the scene in November 2022, when OpenAI broadly released its ChatGPT chatbot, which immediately became wildly popular. Generative AI enables users to quickly generate new content using a wide range of input types.
Citing "unprecedented demand for ChatGPT inside organizations," OpenAI followed up the launch of its free product with the debut of ChatGPT Enterprise in August 2023. This offering provides enterprise-grade security and privacy, among other features not included in its free offering.
AI stock craze
The launch of generative AI kicked off a run-up in the stocks of companies connected to the technology. Nvidia and select other AI stocks had already been widely followed, thanks largely to what we'll call non-generative AI. But starting in 2023, their popularity among investors got a massive boost.
Nvidia's data center business growth has been astounding over the last few quarters, driven by the voracious demand for its products and services that enable generative AI capabilities. Its stock's performance reflects its blockbuster financial results and investor enthusiasm about future growth.
In 2024, shares of Nvidia had soared by 77.4% through March 15, making the stock the second-best performer on the S&P 500 index, behind Super Micro Computer. This follows Nvidia stock's 239% gain in 2023, which earned it the silver medal on the index, with Super Micro taking the gold.
