Many cloud service providers (CSPs) have begun investments in AI-powered servers in response to the emergence of applications such as self-driving cars, artificial intelligence of things (AIoT), and edge computing, research firm TrendForce said.
In 2022, AI servers that are equipped with general-purpose GPUs (GPGPUs) accounted for almost 1 percent of annual global server shipments. In 2023, shipments of AI servers are projected to grow by 8 percent thanks to chatbots and similar applications generating demand across AI-related fields.
Shipments of AI servers are forecasted to increase at a CAGR of 10.8 percent from 2022 to 2026.
Four major North American CSPs (Google, AWS, Meta, and Microsoft) together held the largest share of the annual total AI server demand in 2022, accounting for 66.2 percent of the global procurement quantity.
Among Chinese CSPs, ByteDance was the leader in the procurement of AI servers in 2022. The share of ByteDance in the AI server procurement market was 6.2 percent. The share of Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu in the AI server procurement market touched 2.3 percent, 1.5 percent, and 1.5 percent respectively.
Microsoft has invested in OpenAI. Microsoft launched an improved version of its search engine Bing this February. The new Bing has incorporated a language model named Prometheus and the technology that underlays ChatGPT. Prometheus is a collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI.
Baidu launched ERNIE Bot this February. Initially operating as a standalone software, ERNIE Bot will be integrated into Baidu’s own search engine at a later time.
ChatGPT has mainly adopted NVIDIA’s A100 and utilizes the cloud-based resources and services of Microsoft Azure. If the demand from ChatGPT and Microsoft’s other applications are combined together, then Microsoft’s demand for AI servers is projected to total around 25,000 units for 2023.
Baidu’s ERNIE Bot originally adopted NVIDIA’s A100. However, due to the export control restrictions implemented by the US Commerce Department, ERNIE Bot has now switched to the A800. If the demand from ERNIE Bot and Baidu’s other applications are combined together, then Baidu’s demand for AI servers is projected to total around 2,000 units for 2023.
TrendForce’s survey has revealed that in the market for server GPUs used in AI-related computing, the mainstream products include the H100, A100, and A800 from NVIDIA and the MI250 and MI250X series from AMD. The A800 is designed specifically for the Chinese market due to the latest export restrictions. In terms of the market share for server GPUs, NVIDIA controls about 80 percent, whereas AMD controls about 20 percent.
