Are there unused Nvidia GPUs in China?

Here’s how it works. There are loads of unused Nvidia AI and HPC GPUs in China, it seems. 01.AI, a China-based artificial intelligence startup, has embarked on a shopping spree and procured enough AI GPUs from Nvidia to keep growing for 18 months, its founder Kai-Fu Lee told Bloomberg in a brief interview.

Will 01.ai run out of Nvidia chips?

In any case, for now, 01.AI relies on Nvidia's hardware and CUDA software framework. Kai-Fu Lee is skeptical about China's ability to develop its own AI processors and underlying software that would be competitive with Nvidia's AI and HPC GPUs within the next year and a half, which is when 01.AI's stockpile of Nvidia chips will run out.

Who owns 01.ai?

The company, 01.AI, has reached a valuation of more than US$1 billion after a funding round that included Alibaba Group Holding’s cloud unit, Lee said in an interview. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The chief executive officer of venture firm Sinovation Ventures will also be CEO of the new start-up.