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Taiwanese firms keen to join Nvidia's Omniverse ecosystem to stay competitive in AI era

Chloe Liao, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES Asia 0

Credit: DIGITIMES

As generative AI accelerates digital transformation across various industries, experts agree that future market competition will be defined by speed.

This shift will significantly alter deployment processes in smart manufacturing, autonomous driving, and robotics. Nvidia's Omniverse platform is expected to play a crucial role in helping companies navigate these changes.

Omniverse, frequently highlighted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, is seen as the key to Nvidia's competitive edge over the next decade. Huang envisions an interconnected virtual world, a critical component of Industry 4.0, where Omniverse will play a pivotal role.

Industry players are now actively seeking to join the Omniverse ecosystem to enhance efficiency and stay competitive. They recognize that slower training speeds could lead to products lagging behind in development and market entry. Software-defined full automation, including digital twins for design, simulation, verification, and operation workflows, will become increasingly vital in the future.

In the AI era, the efficiency of digital processes has dramatically increased. While designing a 3D factory once took hundreds of hours, continuous AI learning now enables new designs to be created in minutes. Previously, robotic arms required specialized programming by engineers, but now modifications can be done through AI interactions.

Jensen Huang's son, Spencer Huang, and daughter, Madison Huang, lead the robotics division and Omniverse respectively, underscoring the Omniverse platform's significance to Nvidia.

Currently, AI training and deployment efficiency depend heavily on computing power. The number of GPUs developers possess and the AI training environments deployed are crucial to meeting application requirements.

At the 2024 GTC, Nvidia announced its ongoing efforts to promote the Omniverse Cloud, which can be accessed via APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This allows 3D modeling developers and programmers, regardless of their familiarity with large models or generative AI, to connect and execute well-adjusted microservices, significantly lowering the development threshold.

The first wave of incorporating Omniverse Cloud APIs into product development is mainly dominated by major global industrial software manufacturers such as Ansys, Cadence, Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXCITE, Hexagon, Microsoft, Rockwell, Siemens, and Trimble.

Taiwanese manufacturers are also proactively engaging with the Omniverse ecosystem. During a visit to Taiwan in early June, Nvidia's Huang announced the inclusion of 30 Taiwanese companies into the Omniverse ecosystem. Additional companies have expressed interest in joining as well.

In the AI era, computing power is akin to oil, and for most enterprises, leveraging the capabilities of industry giants can help ensure them a place in the rapidly evolving market.