Nvidia’s market growth has been nothing short of stunning already this year, with the tech behemoth poised to potentially become the World’s Most Valuable company in the next two and a half years thanks to the explosive demand for AI.
It isn’t the only company seeing a significant value increase off the back of AI however. Supermicro, a server manufacturer, has seen a jump of 800% over the past year, due in no small part to its early alignment with Nvidia. Both companies were founded in 1993 and headquartered within in 10 miles of each other.
It’s not just its links to Nvidia that’s driving the growth however. The company has introduced a number of innovative technologies and features to make it more attractive to customers. These include water cooling to cool down graphics accelerators in high-performance data centers and a building-block architecture that simplifies server rack upgrades.
Another dot-com bubble?
Supermicro hasn’t suddenly jumped on the AI bandwagon, it’s been heavily involved in the technology for nearly two decades and is now enjoying the results of that early belief. The company reported that half of its total revenue of $3.66 billion in the December quarter came from AI, prompting it to raise its 2024 revenue forecast to between $14.3 billion and $14.7 billion.
Investors are grouping Supermicro with other AI-related chip companies developing products dedicated to accelerating AI. However, Market Watch reports there is growing concern that high-flying stocks like Nvidia and Supermicro could echo the dot-com bubble of the past, although Supermicro CEO Charles Liang believes the AI boom will continue for "another many quarters, if not many years."
In an interview with CRN, Liang said “Sometimes I like to compare the AI revolution with the Industrial Revolution of 200 years ago. I personally believe this AI revolution impact to our planet can be even bigger than the industrial revolution because AI impacts our lives in everything, both visible and invisible. So the impact will be everywhere.”
