Nvidia unveils Blackwell B200 GPU “super chip”

Imagine withdrawing as much as you want - a dream, right? Now picture a phone that never stops watching you - a nightmare, indeed.

This Tech edition teeters between dreams and nightmares, guaranteed to keep you awake and on edge.

Let's dive down the rabbit hole!

^{A special note from our sponsor Pipedrive}   👋 

Boost Your Sales Game with Pipedrive

Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Pipedrive is the solution you've been looking for. Sign up today to start increasing your sales and growing your business! Sign up for Pipedrive now

Nvidia unveils Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 “super chip”

Nvidia is turning heads once more by releasing the world’s most powerful chip for AI, the new Blackwell B200 GPU and GB200 “super chip”.

How powerful is “world’s most powerful”?

According to Nvidia, their new B200 GPU chip can offer up to 20 petaflops of FP4 horsepower, all from its impressive 208 billion transistors. 

The BG200, on the other hand, combines two GPUs in one Grace CPU that is not only more efficient but can offer 30 times the current performance for LLM inference workloads. It is also much cheaper, and reduces energy consumption. 

What’s new?

One of the main key improvements in this new release comes in the form of a second-gen transformer engine. What this does is that it doubles bandwidth, the compute, and model size by using four bits for each neuron as opposed to using eight. 

Like the power rangers, the second magic only happens when you link a lot of these GPUs together because a new NYLink switch now allows 576 GPUs to “talk” to each other. 

What’s ahead for Nvidia?

Well, the company hopes that other companies will buy these GPUs, and buy them a lot.

According to them, companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are all already planning to purchase and offer Nvidia’s NVL72 racks in their cloud service offerings, but no amount has been decided yet. 

Your phone is about to watch you all the time 👀

Qualcomm has recently revealed Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is said to be so much more .. especially with a camera that is always sensing. 

Generative AI & affordability

Qualcomm, a San Diego based telecoms and chips company has recently announced its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform. 

This new version comes with generative AI, enhanced gaming features and is also said to be much more affordable. It is expected to be featured in phones (like Xiaomi, Honor and Redmi) as soon as this month. 

A camera that always watches 

People are excited about the new Snapdragon 8s Gen, but they are worried about one feature in particular: the camera.

Qualcomm says that this version will come with a camera that is “always-sensing” that uses low power and works to ensure really fast facial recognition unlock. 

Less intimidating features:

With the Sauron camera aside, the new Snapdragon 8s Gen is pretty impressive. It will be capable of virtual assistants, photo expansions and Aqstic Speaker Max Technology, which can reduce distortion whenever music is played at high volume through speakers. 

Hertz’s CEO steps down after expensive mistake

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s CEO has stepped down following an unfortunate result of an expensive decision. 

A dangerous gamble

After serving as CEO for Hertz for two years, Stephen Scherr is about to be replaced by Gil West, former COO of General Motors Co. 's Cruise robotaxi unit.

Shortly after Scherr took over, Hertz decided to double down on EVs and placed huge orders with Polestar, an electric-car maker that is owned by China’s Geely and Sweden’s Volvo Car, and GM. Later, Hertz purchased cars (in a small number) from the two companies. 

Gamble gone wrong

After the purchase and what Hertz initially thought was a good decision … Tesla decides to drop prices across its lineup in order to promote growth of their sales, turning the tides for Hertz drastically. 

Tesla’s strategic move butchered the resale value of the tens of thousands cars that Hertz just invested in (used Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers), making their purchase a very costly bet. 

The repercussions 

By December, Hertz was selling off their fleet (around at least 20,000 electric cars), and in January, they decided to announce a sell-down plan for their EVs. Their reason? Lack of demand, expensive repairs and depreciation. They also reported that this was their biggest quarterly loss since the pandemic. 

So now, Stephen Scherr has decided to step down and allow West to take over, who will also join Hertz’s board of directors starting April 1st. 

Stripe soars: $1 Trillion processed and still growing 📈📈

Stripe's annual letter revealed impressive growth, crossing the milestone of $1 trillion in total payment volume processed during 2023.

This massive number is paired with strong financial health, as the company boasts "robustly cash flow positive" status and the expectation to remain so in 2024.

Loyalty and New Frontiers: 

• The report also highlights the loyalty of Stripe's large customers, with 100 companies now processing over $1 billion annually.

• Furthermore, Stripe is expanding beyond core payments with its "Revenue and Finance Automation" offerings, on track for a $500 million annual run rate – a potential powerhouse in its own right.

• The letter emphasized building closer "relationships" with customers through Stripe's services and products as a key theme.

Striking a Balance: 

Despite the current climate of lower venture capital funding, Stripe reports record startup formation in 2023.

These startups are finding success faster, with a 60% increase in first-year revenue collection compared to 2019.

With this kind of momentum, Stripe seems ready for continued growth and a bright future.

Some more Tech-ila shots 🥃

• Endless cash withdrawal: A bank in Ethiopia ran into some serious troubleshooting issues. Users of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, especially students, found a glitch that allowed them to withdraw money beyond what they had in their bank accounts. (Link)

• Microsoft Research has a new cache-store, Garnet, that offers benefits like the ability to use Garnet from unmodified Redis clients, better scalability and throughput. (Link)

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) found a security breach in February that resulted in a dozen of email accounts hacked. The accounts’ security was restored, and there is no indication that the hacker managed to get anywhere beyond the emails. (Link)

Tech Throwback: March 19, 2009

Yesterday (but in 1999), Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer 5.0, and today (but back in 2009), they released Internet Explorer 8. 

On March 19, 2009, Internet Explorer 8.0 was released. 

The Internet Explorer 8 was available for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. 

It was amazing news for web developers because by incorporating the IE Developer Toolbar straight into IE8, they were able to debug CSS, Javascript, and HTML quickly. 

This improvement then created a ripple effect, allowing these web developers to create an overall enhanced web experience by creating applications for companies, enterprises, and consumers. 

Another great improvement that came with IE8 was the ability of the address bar to finally autocomplete URLs and offer suggested sites. 

Browsers have definitely come a long way. 

Well, it’s time for us all to log off. Catch you in the tech wave next week!