Arm to offer Nvidia’s NVLink technology in AI data centre chips

[SAN FRANCISCO] Arm Holdings plans to start incorporating Nvidia’s NVLink technology into chip designs for artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, tightening the relationship between two influential semiconductor companies.

Arm, owner of the most widely deployed processor technology, will add the interface to its Neoverse platform, the companies said on Monday (Nov 17). Nvidia is the dominant provider of semiconductors used in AI infrastructure, and NVLink has become a vital tool in linking large numbers of those chips together.

Under chief executive officer Rene Haas, Arm has begun offering more complete chip designs to customers. It’s an attempt to boost revenue and find lucrative markets outside the UK-based company’s traditional strength in the smartphone industry.

NVLink acts as a bridge between chips – predominantly Nvidia’s AI accelerators, the processors that help develop and run AI software. It allows the semiconductors to share information and break up large computing tasks more effectively via extremely high-speed connections.

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, recently unveiled a version of the technology called Fusion that is open to other hardware makers. That means they can use it to connect non-Nvidia chips to their computing infrastructure.

In September, Nvidia announced a separate deal with longtime rival Intel under which its former nemesis will adopt NVLink in some of its server products. Arm, via customers such as Amazon.com’s AWS and Microsoft, has been making headway in the data centre market. It’s taking share from Intel, whose Xeon processors once commanded 99 per cent of the market.

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Nvidia already uses Arm technology in processors that it combines with its accelerators, and even attempted to acquire the business in a deal that was stymied by regulators. A closer tie-up between the two companies would help solidify NVLink as an industry standard.

Arm, meanwhile, is trying to sell its Neoverse technology to more so-called hyperscalers, the biggest operators of data centres. The company has said that its offering is on track to reach 50 per cent of the market.

On Wednesday, Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia will deliver its quarterly results, which should provide investors with a sense of its growth trajectory. and whether the massive AI computing build-out remains on track. BLOOMBERG