Revealing the Three-Company Honeymoon at Major Events
Emphasizing Generative AI Services-GPU Partnerships
Samsung SDS is revealing a close relationship with NVIDIA and Dell Technologies at its annual major events. CEOs from each company accompany each other's events, showcasing an alliance in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and graphics processing units (GPU). Since high-performance GPUs are essential for the stable supply of generative AI services, a solid partnership itself is seen as a competitive advantage.
According to the IT industry on the 27th, the ‘REAL Summit 2024’ hosted by Samsung SDS on the 3rd of next month at COEX in Seoul will feature keynote speakers including Samsung SDS CEO Hwang Seong-woo, Michael Dell, Chairman of Dell Technologies, and Jerry Chen, Global Business Development Head of Manufacturing and Industrial Sector at NVIDIA. Now in its sixth year, the REAL Summit is an event to introduce Samsung SDS solutions and share customer cases. Although attending virtually, this is the first time Chairman Dell will participate in the REAL Summit. Given the theme of ‘Realizing Hyperautomation through AI,’ it is expected that the cooperation in GPU supply and other areas will be introduced.
Hwang Seong-woo, CEO of Samsung SDS, is delivering a keynote speech with Michael Dell, Chairman of Dell Technologies, at DTW 2024. [Photo by Samsung SDS]
At Dell Technologies’ annual event ‘Dell Technologies World 2024’ held in Las Vegas, USA, last May, the alliance among the three companies also stood out. Chairman Dell, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and CEO Hwang appeared side by side as keynote speakers. Last year, NVIDIA Senior Vice President Shanker Trivedi also attended Samsung SDS’s REAL Summit event.
The reason the three companies showcase their cooperation at major events is that high-performance GPUs are essential for generative AI services. From Samsung SDS’s perspective, it is important to demonstrate a strong partnership because it may lag behind mega cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft (MS), and Google Cloud in GPU purchasing power.
In April, Samsung SDS launched the generative AI service ‘FabriX’ through its cloud platform SCP. NVIDIA GPUs are provided together so that client company employees can use FabriX simultaneously and stably while learning large amounts of data. Through a strategic partnership with NVIDIA, a large quantity of GPUs has been secured in advance. They have high-performance GPUs such as the ‘H100,’ ‘A100,’ and ‘V100.’ GPUs are provided on a subscription basis, with the H100 available at about 17,000 KRW per hour or approximately 8.6 million KRW per month with a one-year contract. Purchasing an H100 directly costs over 40,000 USD (about 53 million KRW) per unit and requires nearly a year of waiting. This targets corporate customers who want to use generative AI services but find the cost burdensome or do not want to wait.
When NVIDIA GPUs are insufficient, support from Dell is also received. Last year, Dell launched AI-dedicated servers ‘PowerEdge XE9680’ and ‘PowerEdge XE8640.’ These servers are equipped with NVIDIA GPUs, Intel processors, storage cards, and cooling fans. High-performance servers enable rapid development, training, and deployment of large-scale AI models. It is reported that Samsung SDS used Dell GPU servers when developing generative AI services such as FabriX. At the Dell event last May, CEO Hwang mentioned, “Dell was the savior when GPU servers were insufficient last year.” He emphasized, “As demand for high-performance enterprise generative AI services increases, efficient and stable GPU server operation is important,” adding, “Through a close partnership with Dell, we can provide generative AI services quickly and affordably to enterprise customers.”
Amid GPU cooperation, Samsung SDS is increasing sales through generative AI services. In the second quarter, cloud sales including AI reached 556 billion KRW, up 25% from the same period last year. Especially, as GPU services for generative AI increased, SCP sales recorded 209.5 billion KRW, a 49% increase. Samsung SDS forecasted, “Generative AI sales will become full-scale in the second half of the year,” and “Annual sales could reach the mid-100 billion KRW range this year.”
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