Nvidia A100 GPUs Still Attracting Customers Nine Years After Launch

The AI boom has been fueled by massive investments in infrastructure, but one of the biggest concerns for investors is how long AI chips can stay useful and retain their value. Recent data from CoreWeave, an AI cloud company, suggests that Nvidia A100 GPUs introduced in 2020 are still attracting customers up to nine years after launch.

CoreWeve's latest contract with Nvidia extends into 2029 at an attractive price, according to the company's CFO Nitin Agrawal. This is significant because investors have been debating how quickly AI hardware loses its economic value. Critics and short sellers have argued that rapid advances from Nvidia could make older chips obsolete within two or three years.

However, CoreWeave's deal suggests the opposite may be happening. Older GPUs can remain useful for less demanding tasks such as data processing and machine learning, which don't require the latest hardware. Erwan Menard, a senior vice president at AI infrastructure company Crusoe, has said that GPUs can move from one type of work to another as they age.