--- title: "Nvidia’s New AI Chips Are Reportedly Overheating in Server Farms" description: "Nvidia's unreleased AI chips are apparently melting down, causing their shipment to be delayed until the beginning of 2025 at the earliest. " date: "2024-11-19" modified: "2024-11-19" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nvidia-blackwell-chips-overheating" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai chips" - "blackwell chips" - "NVIDIA" - "the digest" --- # Nvidia’s New AI Chips Are Reportedly Overheating in Server Farms ![Nvidia's unreleased AI chips are apparently melting down, causing their shipment to be delayed until the beginning of 2025 at the earliest. ]() *\Image: Andrej Sokolow / picture alliance via Getty\* ## Graphic Pushback Unit Nvidia's [unreleased AI chips]() are reportedly overheating, with customers worrying that their already-delayed shipment may be pushed back yet again. As [*The Information* reports](), the company's uber-powerful Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) are overheating when connected in server racks that can hold up to 72 of them. According to Nvidia employees who've been working on releasing the chips, as well as customers and vendors with knowledge of the issue, the firm has repeatedly asked its suppliers to redesign the racks to head off the overheating problem. The issue is so problematic that the company informed Microsoft this week that shipment will be delayed at least another three months — the latest development in a series of pushbacks that have haunted the company since the Blackwell chips were first [unveiled back in March](). And that doesn't bode well, considering the astronomical resources AI companies are allocating to building out server farms, nagging growing pains that could hold back their efforts to train and roll out the next AI product. ## Design and Demand Nvidia claims its next-generation GPUs are extremely powerful and [30 times as fast]() as preceding models when it comes to AI applications. As CEO [Jensen Huang told *CNBC*]() last month, demand for Blackwell chips has been "insane" as people rush to pre-order the chips that cost tens of thousands of dollars apiece. Amid all that hype, however, [rumors of design flaws]() have plagued the release of the Blackwell chips for months. Eventually, Huang admitted in part that some of the hearsay was true. "We had a design flaw in Blackwell, it was functional, but the design flaw caused the yield to be low," the CEO said during an October 23 press conference, [per *Reuters*](). "It was 100 percent Nvidia's fault." While that admission seems to have been related to another production issue, it nevertheless seems to have caused yet another unnecessary delay in the shipment process. In the meantime, a Nivida spokesperson claimed that the latest overheating issue was nothing to worry about and that "the engineering iterations are normal and expected." The massive rack of 72 GPUs weighs a whopping 3,000 pounds and needs to be cooled using water, a departure from the air-cooling many AI data centers have come to rely upon. According to *The Information*, Nvidia was struggling with even a much smaller 36-GPU rack overheating. As the immense hype surrounding the release of new AI products continues to grow, the pressure is rising considerably for Nvidia. Customers have already been [hit with delays]() of the new Blackwell chips — the latest development likely won't sit well with him either. **More on AI computing power:** [*AI Expert Warns Crash Is Imminent As AI Improvements Hit Brick Wall*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()