Held in the U.S. from the 17th to the 21st
Jensen Huang to Deliver Keynote on 'AI and Accelerated Computing'
Quantum Computing, Once Said to Take 20 Years, Becomes a Main Topic
Potential Unveiling of New AI Chips Following Blackwell
NVIDIA's developer event 'GTC 2025' is about to open. As the AI supremacy competition among countries worldwide intensifies following the emergence of China's artificial intelligence (AI) 'DeepSeek,' attention is focused on the strategies that NVIDIA, the leader in AI chips, will unveil. In particular, all eyes are on what plans NVIDIA will announce at the first-ever 'Quantum Day' held this year.
NVIDIA will hold GTC 2025 from the 17th (local time) to the 21st in San Jose, California, USA. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's founder and CEO, will deliver the keynote speech at 10 a.m. on the 18th (2 a.m. on the 19th Korean time) at the SAP Center. The keynote, themed 'AI and Accelerated Computing Technology,' will be broadcast live on NVIDIA's official website.
Before the conference, CEO Huang stated, "AI is surpassing the limits of possibility, turning yesterday's dreams into today's reality," adding, "GTC is a place where the best scientists, engineers, developers, and creators gather to imagine and build a better future." Since its inception in 2009, GTC has established itself as the world's largest AI event, especially after the 'AI boom' took off in 2023.
NVIDIA will hold GTC 2025 in San Jose, California, USA, from the 17th to the 21st (local time). Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, will deliver the keynote speech at 10 a.m. on the 18th (2 a.m. KST on the 19th) at the SAP Center. Photo by NVIDIA
This year’s GTC is expected to host 25,000 onsite attendees and 300,000 online participants. Onsite, 2,000 speakers and over 1,000 sessions are scheduled, along with nearly 400 exhibition booths. Major companies attending include global firms such as Micron from the U.S., Adobe, ARM, Airbnb, Dell Technologies, SoftBank, and TSMC, as well as domestic semiconductor and IT companies like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, LG, and Naver.
NVIDIA will hold Quantum Day for the first time at this year’s GTC. CEO Huang will personally participate in the Quantum Day panel discussion on the 20th to discuss the present and future of quantum computing. In January, during the CES 2025 consumer electronics and IT exhibition, Huang sparked controversy by stating in a meeting with Wall Street analysts that "it could take 20 years for useful quantum computers to emerge."
However, with NVIDIA planning to focus on quantum computing at this year’s conference, the industry is speculating that the pace of technological development may accelerate. Earlier this year in January, IT giant Microsoft (MS) declared 2025 as "the year to prepare for quantum technology," which led to a surge in stock prices of quantum computing-related companies on the New York Stock Exchange. The Quantum Day panel will include major quantum computing innovators with high growth potential such as D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti Computing.
There is also speculation about new product announcements at this conference. Last year at GTC 2024, CEO Huang showcased the Blackwell 'B200,' an AI chip with 30 times the performance of previous models. Furthermore, during the Q4 earnings conference call for fiscal year 2025 on the 26th of last month, NVIDIA announced that Blackwell’s Q4 revenue reached $11 billion, exceeding internal expectations. NVIDIA also previewed that it will introduce Blackwell Ultra and Rubin (scheduled for mass production next year), as well as inference AI and physical AI products at this GTC. Industry insiders expect CEO Huang to reveal the roadmap for 'Rubin Ultra,' the successor to Rubin planned for release in 2027, at this GTC.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, visited the Samsung Electronics booth at the developer conference 'GTC 2024' held last year in San Jose, California, USA, and left his autograph on the next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM), HBM3E. Screenshot from the SNS of Hanjinman, Vice President of Samsung Electronics
Particular attention is also on which companies CEO Huang will engage with regarding the supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs). According to the semiconductor industry, NVIDIA is expected to finalize the supply volume and product configuration for next year’s HBM within the first quarter. Interest is focused on how much SK Hynix, which has been supplying HBM3E 8-stack products to NVIDIA since last year, will supply next year, as well as the possibility of collaboration with Samsung Electronics. At last year’s GTC, CEO Huang visited Samsung Electronics’ booth and personally signed a model of the HBM3E 12-stack.
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will also participate in this event. Eyal Pnini, Senior Director at Samsung Electronics, will present on the topic 'AI Acceleration: The Impact of Memory on GPUs,' covering memory semiconductors. At SK Hynix, researcher Park Jung-su, responsible for HBM product planning, will give a lecture titled 'HBM: The Core of High-Performance Computing and AI.'
LG AI Research, which has recently entered AI development in earnest, will attend GTC for the first time this year and plans to demonstrate its generative AI model 'ExaOne,' which has mainly been used internally by employees, to the public. LG AI Research Director Bae Gyeong-hoon is expected to attend the event to network with companies onsite.
LG Uplus President Hong Beom-sik, from the telecommunications sector, is also reported to be attending GTC. Kim Yoo-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, which has strengthened cooperation since last year’s GTC, will participate in the Sovereign AI Summit as a representative of Korean companies. Meanwhile, domestic AI specialized startups will also attend GTC. Shin Jae-min, CEO of Trillion Labs, and Shin Jeong-gyu, CEO of LabUp, are scheduled to present sessions on the 17th and 21st, respectively.
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