Choi Tae-won: "No Rival Will Topple Nvidia in the Next 2-3 Years"

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Choi Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and SK Group, stated that he believes "there will be almost no rivals for the next 2 to 3 years" regarding Nvidia, which is leading the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market.

Chairman Choi Tae-won of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry is sharing his thoughts on NVIDIA, AI technology, and more at the 'KCCI Jeju Forum' AI Management Talk Show on the 19th. Photo by Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Chairman Choi made this remark during a discussion with Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and others at the 'AI Management Talk Show' held on the 19th at the Shilla Hotel in Jeju as part of the 'KCCI Jeju Forum.'

When asked, "When and who do you think will topple Nvidia's dominance?" Chairman Choi replied, "It is difficult to predict," but added, "I think it will be hard to topple Nvidia for the next 2 to 3 years. There are several factors involved."

He emphasized, "Nvidia's advantage lies in its experience with graphics processing units (GPUs), which means they have been working on computations similar to AI processing. Based on this, Nvidia has significantly advanced its software."

However, Chairman Choi also said, "Does that mean Nvidia could fall in 2 to 3 years? That is possible," and explained, "Currently, the model for how to make money with AI is not clear. There is an assumption that 'we will naturally make money with AI later.' Although huge investments have been made over 2 to 3 years to develop large language models (LLMs), if growth sufficient to generate revenue has not been achieved, whether companies or individuals pay, payment applications need to be developed alongside. If that does not happen well, a different ecosystem other than Nvidia's world will be needed, and the fortress Nvidia has built could collapse."

Regarding who could surpass Nvidia, Chairman Choi said, "Because Nvidia's chip performance is currently excellent, people will continue to use them even if they are expensive. So their winning streak will continue. This could last more than five years," but added, "It is difficult to say who can break Nvidia now. There are companies using Nvidia's chips, but they also have a strong desire to make their own chips. AMD and ARM are also making chips. If someone, including those who have been making chips, can produce chips at a lower cost, Nvidia could collapse. The probability is hard to calculate."

Chairman Choi also mentioned his recent business trip to the United States, where he met consecutively with executives of global tech companies. He said, "Since companies have their own strategies, it is important to understand those strategies," and emphasized, "Our strategy is not only to compete at the same level as big tech in fields like semiconductors that we produce and live by, but also to sell other solutions. Therefore, it is important to identify each of their needs."

He continued, "Rather than selling single products like semiconductors, we need to check whether they require something like our energy solutions. Recently, tech companies' interest has been in AI data centers. While we cannot build data centers ourselves, we discuss with executives how our technology and materials can be incorporated to create more efficient data centers."