Nvidia GTC: The AI Conference Brings a Bit of Taiwan to San Jose 13 comments
San Jose can’t be experienced under normal circumstances, at least since Corona Downtown is considered dead for many. This week, however, the GTC, Nvidia’s AI Conference, attracts tens of thousands of visitors. Nvidia isn’t missing the opportunity to breathe new life into the event with a night market.
At the GPU technology conference, Nvidia is expecting 25,000 visitors in San Jose, which is located south of Silicon Valley, where the west and east sides of the San Francisco Bay Area converge. Another 300,000 attendees are participating virtually. This time, more than 400 exhibitors and 2,000 speakers with over 1,000 presentations are providing the program. During the week of March 17-21, Nvidia is breathing new life into the city center with GTC. This year’s conference is only the second event held on-site, after GTC was inevitably postponed from 2020 to 2023, and Nvidia only later decided on other sizes to dedicate itself to in-person events.
A small venue is no longer enough
These days, Nvidia has to accommodate many more visitors than it did a few years ago, when the San Jose McEnery Convention Center’s hall was still large enough for CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address. On its way to the AI giant, which is Nvidia these days, there was a stop at San Jose State University’s athletic arena before moving to the SAP Center last year, which can accommodate up to 19,000 people depending on the configuration. Impressions of the Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose
Impressions of the Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose Image 1 of 4
A Touch of Taiwan: The GTC Night Market
Even the small park on Plaza de Cesar Chavez, right next to the conference center, has incorporated Nvidia this time around, breathing new life into the otherwise rather dead city center with food trucks, stalls, and a concert arena. In keeping with Jensen Huang’s preference for visiting the Tonghua Night Market in Taiwan, the conference’s new outdoor area is being called the “GTC Night Market,” even though nothing was happening at least yesterday, the first night. And Jensen’s favorite fresh fruit stand, as you know it from Taiwan’s “Fruit Lady,” can’t be found in downtown San Jose.
Impressions of Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose
Impressions of Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose Image 1 of 11
The GTC only really kicks off today with Jensen Huang’s keynote address, which can be followed in the live stream starting at 6 p.m. The topics are related to robotics, self-driving cars, climate, healthcare, and more, but all in some way related to (new) Nvidia hardware with artificial intelligence and acceleration. Among other things, the idea of Blackwell Ultra, a faster tier of the current generation with more memory, is expected. The roadmap, on which Rubin and Rubin Ultra are already the next one, Jensen Huang had made public at Computex last June.
Roadmap for Blackwell and Rubin
Roadmap for Blackwell and Rubin Topics: Graphics Cards Artificial Intelligence Nvidia Nvidia GTC 2025 Supercomputer
An engineer by training, Alexandre shares his knowledge on GPU performance for gaming and creation.
