2024年4月21日发(作者：国产手机第一名)

每日精读 | Artificial intelligence：Nvincible?

文章脉络

【1】创新的浪潮往往会造就巨头，那AI是否会将英伟达变为科技巨头呢？

【2】AI热度高，引来众多公司竞争。

【3】英伟达的确有着众多优势。

【4】英伟达有先见之明，对两个重要领域进行投资。一个是投资先进的网络。

【5】另一个是开发软件。

【6】尽管有这些优势，英伟达的主导地位能否持续仍有待确认。

【7】政府和监管机构可能会限制英伟达的发展。

【8】不过，现在看来，未来依旧光明，因为AI技术很有用，并且英伟达的优势是将软

件、芯片和网络相结合，打造一个有机的生态系统。

经济学人原文

Artificial intelligence：Nvincible?

The AI boom has turbocharged Nvidia’s fortunes. Can it hold its position?

【

1

】Waves of innovation often create giants.

Microsoft rode the upsurge in desktop computers, as Apple did with the smartphone.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may well be the next big technological

shift, transforming the way businesses are run and society functions. If so, plenty of

firms selling the software and hardware that underpin AI stand to gain. But none is

better positioned than Nvidia, an American firm that makes specialist AI chips. Its

market value briefly passed $

1

trn this week. Will AI sweep Nvidia to big tech-dom?

【

2

】The hype around AI makes the question hard to answer. excitement about

Nvidia began to mount in November, after the release of ChatGPT, an AI-powered

chatbot. Since then all manner of firms have launched AI-infused products, adding to

the fervour. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s boss, is unsurprisingly bullish, talking of a “new

computing era”. Investors seem just as jubilant. Nvidia’s share price has more than

doubled since the start of the year.

【

3

】Much of the excitement is justified. Nvidia is in an enviable position. Its core

business is designing high-performance chips. At first it sold these to video-

game enthusiasts. The chips were also highly efficient at training AI models, and a

new, booming market emerged. But the firm has not just been lucky. With

each generation of new chips, it has improved performance many times over. Today

it holds over

80

% of the market in specialist AI chips.

【

4

】Nvidia also had the forethought to invest in two areas that

helped cement its supremacy. One is advanced networking. Because training AI

models requires vast amounts of processing power, many chips—sometimes

thousands—are used simultaneously. These chips exchange data along a high-

performance, AI-tailored network. Today Nvidia controls

78

% of that market, thanks

to its purchase of Mellanox, a specialist, in

2019

.

【

5

】Nvidia’s other strength is its software. CUDA, its AI platform, is popular

with programmers and runs only on the company’s chips. By, for instance, giving

free access to its chips and software to some AI researchers, the firm focused

on encouraging developers to use its software long before its competitors set out

to woo them.

【

6

】Despite all these advantages, however, Nvidia’s lasting dominance is

not assured. For a start, some of the frenzy around AI may die down. The juicier the

firm’s prospects, the more competitors it will attract. Startups and big chipmakers,

such as AMD and Intel, want a share of Nvidia’s network and chip businesses. Others

are working on open-source and proprietary software that may weaken CUDA’s

hold. The biggest challenge, though, may come from Nvidia’s own customers. The

cloud-computing arms of both Amazon and Alphabet are designing their own AI-

tailored chips. Both have the scale and the deep pockets to become fearsome rivals.

【

7

】Governments also pose a risk. Regulators worried about the dangers AI poses to

society and national security are searching for ways to control the technology. Last

year America restricted the sale of high-performance chips and chipmaking tools to

some Chinese firms, which dented Nvidia’s sales in the third quarter. If Nvidia

is dominant, politicians will find it easier to act.

【

8

】Still, for now the future looks bright. Even if AI mania cools, the technology

is bound to be more useful than crypto, another craze that Nvidia cashed in on.

Regulation may crimp growth, but is unlikely to kill it. And none of Nvidia’s rivals is

yet offering AI products that bundle together software, chips and networking.

Nvidia’s chief advantage lies in its ability to package these up and create

an attractive ecosystem. That sounds a lot like Microsoft and Apple.

长难句：

1）原文：

By, for instance, giving free access to its chips and software to some AI researchers, the firm

focused on encouraging developers to use its software long before its competitors set out to woo

them.

2）分析：

 红色部分是主句，是主谓宾结构。

 紫色部分是插入语用来表示举例；橙色部分是by引导的介词短语做方式状语。蓝

色部分是before引导的时间状语从句。

3）译文：例如，通过为一些AI研究人员免费提供芯片和软件， 英伟达就能早在其竞争对

手开始招揽这些研究人员之前就着重鼓励开发者使用其软件。