CoreWeave Is First to Deploy Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs. Dell Is Providing the Servers.

A Dell AI server using Nvidia’s latest GB300 NVL72 AI system. (Courtesy Switch)

Nvidia’s next-generation AI chip, the Blackwell Ultra AI GPU, is now commercially available.

On Thursday, CoreWeave and Dell Technologies announced the first cloud provider deployment of Nvidia’s latest GB300 NVL72 AI systems for customers.

“We’re proud to be the first to operationalize this transformative platform at scale and deliver it into the hands of innovators building the next generation of AI,” CoreWeave co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Peter Salanki said in a press release.

CoreWeave was founded in 2017 and provides large-scale access to graphics processing units, or GPUs, via the cloud. With GPUs in hot demand, it has become a much needed service for both AI start-ups and more mature enterprises.

The rollout features liquid-cooled Dell servers that incorporate 72 Nvidia Blackwell Ultra GPUs and 36 Arm-based Nvidia Grace CPUs. CoreWeave plans to deploy significantly more Nvidia Blackwell Ultra Dell servers throughout the year.

“Today we reached another milestone in advancing enterprise AI by becoming the first to ship NVIDIA GB300 NVL72,” Dell Infrastructure Solutions Group President Arthur Lewis said. “It’s a testament to Dell’s unwavering commitment to deliver cutting-edge technologies that empower industries to innovate with speed and scale.”

Blackwell Ultra is the follow-up to Blackwell and offers 50% more performance compared to its predecessor, according to Nvidia. In May, Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress stated the company sent out test shipments of the Blackwell Ultra GB300 NVL72 to some customers that month, expecting production shipments later this quarter.

Earlier this year, CEO Jensen Huang said the move to Blackwell Ultra would be seamless compared with the “challenging transition” to Blackwell from Hopper, which required a more complex upgrade to 72 GPUs from eight GPUs inside each server rack. Blackwell Ultra shares a similar 72 GPU server architecture with Blackwell.

Dell has become one of the leading providers of computers and servers for AI. CoreWeave and Elon Musk’s xAI both are customers of Dell hardware for their AI infrastructure buildouts.

Nvidia shares closed up 1.3% on Thursday. CoreWeave stock rallied 8.8%, while Dell shares rose 1.4%.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com