Nvidia: American technology giant introduced the latest AI chip

Nvidia has unveiled its latest artificial intelligence (AI) chip, which it says can perform some tasks 30 times faster than its predecessor.

The company has 80% market share and hopes to strengthen its dominance.

In addition to Blackwell's B200 chip, its chief executive Jensen Huang detailed the new set of software tools at its annual developer conference.

Nvidia is the third most valuable company in the United States, behind only Microsoft and Apple.

Its shares have risen 240% over the past year and its market value reached $2tn (£1.57tn) last month.

Opening the conference, Mr. Huang jokingly said, “I hope you understand that this is not a concert.”

But Bob O'Donnell of Technalysis Research, who attended the event, said "the hype was in the air."

“I haven’t seen anything like this in the tech industry for quite some time,” he said.

“In fact, some people have drawn analogies to presentations from the Steve Jobs era.”

Nvidia said major customers including Amazon, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are expected to use the firm's new flagship chip in cloud computing services and for their own artificial intelligence offerings.

New software tools called microservices are also said to improve system efficiency, making it easier for businesses to implement an artificial intelligence model into their operations.

Other announcements include a new line of automotive chips that can run chatbots inside the car. The company said Chinese electric vehicle makers BYD and Xpeng will use its new chips.

Mr. Huang also talked about a new series of chips for creating humanoid robots, inviting several robots to join him on stage.

Founded in 1993, Nvidia was originally known for making computer chips that processed graphics, especially for computer games.

Long before the artificial intelligence revolution, the company began adding features to its chips that it says help machine learning, an investment that has helped it gain market share.

This is a key company to watch right now to see how quickly AI-powered technology is spreading across the business world.

But competition from rivals such as AMD and Intel is intensifying.

Mr O'Donnell said the market was growing so quickly that "even if Nvidia lost some share, they would still be able to grow their overall business because there's just a lot of opportunity here for everyone."