According to foreign media reports, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are buying thousands of high-performance Nvidia chips. Since the beginning of this year, the hot demand for AI large-scale model training has driven Nvidia's GPU chips to a shortage. The price of an H100 has exceeded 40,000 US dollars. The entry of "Middle Eastern tycoons" who are not short of money may lead to a more intense global artificial intelligence arms race.
According to people familiar with the matter, Saudi Arabia has purchased at least 3,000 Nvidia's H100 chips through Kaust. These chips will all be delivered by the end of 2023, with a total value of about 120 million US dollars, and will be used to train AI large models.
H100 is a chip dedicated to training AI large models. The GPT-3 model has a parameter volume of 175 billion. OpenAI used 1024 A100 chips (the predecessor of the H100) for training, and it took just over a month. The parameters of large AI models can easily reach tens of billions. Only in China, there has been a "hundred-model war". However, the chip market dedicated to large-scale model training is almost monopolized by Nvidia.
It is reported that the UAE has also obtained the right to use thousands of Nvidia chips, and has launched its own open source large language model "Falcon40B". Over the course of two months, "Falcon40B" used 384 A100 chips for training.
A person close to the UAE government said: "The UAE has made a decision that it wants to own and control its own computing power and talent, have its own platform, and not rely on other countries. The important thing is that the UAE has the capital to do so and also has energy resources. , while also attracting the best talent from around the world.”
In order to get rid of dependence on oil and diversify their economies, the governments of the Gulf countries have used their petrodollar wealth to enter multiple industries. Energy prices soared last year, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both of which manage the world's largest and most active sovereign investment funds, have reaped the rewards. Sufficient financial resources allow the two countries to spend a lot of money on emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and e-sports in search of "new oil".
In 2017, the UAE became the first country to establish an AI sector. In 2019, Saudi Arabia also established a data and artificial intelligence agency.
On April 30 this year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, stated that it is necessary to increase research efforts in artificial intelligence, digital economy and remote office applications to promote future technology. Application in government work mode.
The UAE has also released a comprehensive guide on the application of generative artificial intelligence, which aims to help various departments in the UAE take full advantage of the advantages of artificial intelligence technology, while strengthening their execution in various fields.
According to the Emirates News Agency, the UAE has always prioritized the development of cutting-edge solutions in the field of artificial intelligence, especially generative artificial intelligence. Omar bin Sultan Al-Orama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Telecommuting Applications, said that the release of the generative artificial intelligence guidelines reflects the UAE government's positive progress towards the vision and goal of leading the digital world. Leveraging generative AI applications is a key move to seize the big opportunities ahead.
The UAE's AI large model "Falcon40B" was announced on May 25 as open source for research and commercial purposes, thereby strengthening the country's international influence in the field of artificial intelligence.
At the end of 2020, Saudi Arabia released a national data and artificial intelligence strategy. According to the strategy, by 2030, Saudi Arabia will attract about US$20 billion in domestic and foreign investment in the field of artificial intelligence, train more than 20,000 data and artificial intelligence experts, and create more than 300 start-ups. Ghamdi, chairman of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority, said that the strategy aims to further develop the data and artificial intelligence industry and promote the transformation of the Saudi economy.
During his visit to Abu Dhabi (the capital of the United Arab Emirates) in June this year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised Abu Dhabi for its vision to recognize the importance of artificial intelligence. During a question-and-answer session in the city's financial district, he said the Gulf region could play a "central role in the global conversation" around emerging technologies and their regulation.
“There was talk about AI before it was in the spotlight, especially in Abu Dhabi,” said Sam Altman. “Everyone is jumping on the AI bandwagon now, and that excites us.” , but we are especially grateful to those who had the foresight.”
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