NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs Cost Around $30K-$40K, $10 Billion Development Cost For The Fastest AI Chip On The Planet

NVIDIA's Blackwell AI GPUs unveiled at GTC 2024, will cost a hefty price for potential buyers, as the firm is estimated to have poured several billion dollars into the project.

The Blackwell AI GPUs by NVIDIA are the next big deal in the industry, replacing the Hopper H100 & H200 platform in terms of market hype and demand. The new lineup's debut has seen great excitement among the markets and will undoubtedly catalyze the progression into the future. However, with all the performance packed into a single Blackwell GPU, NVIDIA is estimated to have spent a hefty amount on R&D efforts, with reports suggesting that Team Green has invested a whopping $10 billion to develop the platform, breaking all financial records.

Blackwell cost $10 billion to develop. Good luck to the AI chip startups! https://t.co/IHcIL5vL1t

— tae kim (@firstadopter) March 19, 2024

The news comes from @firstadopter, a senior writer at Barrons, who has disclosed that NVIDIA has spent a lot to meet market expectations with its Blackwell platform, and the firm plans on generating huge ROIs, as another news has revealed that NVIDIA plans on selling its Blackwell AI GPU somewhere within the $30,000 to $40,000 range, marking a considerable bump from the Hopper generation.

This will cost $30-$40K USD. The very first one, the R&D budget of this generation is probably something like $10 Billion USD.

Jensen Huang - NVIDIA CEO (via CNBC Television)

It is said that NVIDIA's Blackwell B200 would cost them more than $6,000 to manufacture, and the firm plans on generating significant gains by capitalizing on the considerable hype surrounding the new GPU platform.

Jensen told CNBC this morning a Blackwell GPU will cost $30,000 to $40,000 h/t @copperwaterarb https://t.co/HRO4pJ5AYC

— tae kim (@firstadopter) March 19, 2024

For a quick rundown on what to expect with NVIDIA's Blackwell, it is the first to feature NVIDIA's "exclusive" MCM design, incorporating two GPUs on the same die. It will feature a total of 104 Billion transistors on each compute die, which is fabricated on the TSMC 4NP process node, and in terms of generational improvements, you are looking at a 2x to 5x gain across all parameters compared to the Hopper lineup, along with up to 192 GB HBM3e memory configuration. We have detailed coverage on the platform here, so check it out since the generational gains are phenomenal.

NVIDIA doesn't look to provide any space to competitors, and despite firms like AMD gaining some ground due to their latest AI offerings, we see Team Green as the clear winner in the longer term, emerging as the dominant face of the markets. And, not to mention the financial progress that we are expected to see by the firm, given that their ROIs are predicted to double with the Blackwell platform.