Key points
- SemiAnalysis says neoclouds were shut out of GTC Berlin
- Why SemiAnalysis says larger cloud companies face less pressure
- What neocloud executives told SemiAnalysis in June
Several neoclouds were refused access to Nvidia's (NVDA) GTC Berlin conference after adding chips from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Google, and others to their cloud offerings, chip research firm SemiAnalysis said in a post on X on Friday. "We have confirmed that multiple Neoclouds have been refused access to GTC Berlin due to them adding AMD GPUs, TPUs, and other chips to their cloud offerings," the firm wrote.
Neoclouds are companies that rent out AI computing capacity, such as CoreWeave (CRWV) and Nebius (NBIS). SemiAnalysis did not identify either company as having been refused access. It didn't name the companies that were turned away or say how it confirmed the refusals. GTC Berlin, Nvidia's European conference, runs Oct. 20 to 22.
SemiAnalysis says hyperscalers have more leverage
SemiAnalysis said the pressure doesn't extend to the largest cloud companies. "Note that this doesn't apply to hyperscalers, as they have more buying power," the firm wrote. "But for neoclouds, executives feel NVIDIA has been using high-pressure tactics to keep them NVIDIA-only."
The firm said neocloud executives are starting to consider offering Google's TPUs or AMD's GPUs quietly "to avoid getting pressured by NVIDIA and to avoid the feeling that NVIDIA will retaliate."
The claim builds on a June thread
Friday's post quoted a thread SemiAnalysis published on June 27. In it, the firm said many neocloud executives it spoke with felt Nvidia would retaliate if their clusters used non-Nvidia networking gear or their clouds offered AMD GPUs or TPUs. "They feel that retaliation includes not giving early allocation or no longer supporting a potential IPO/VC raise," SemiAnalysis wrote then.
Nvidia sells chips to neoclouds and holds stakes in some of them, including CoreWeave. On Thursday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he doesn't think CoreWeave will need a bailout from Nvidia.
CoreWeave and Nebius shares were already falling before SemiAnalysis posted at 2:27 p.m. ET. CoreWeave was down 12.8% and Nebius 12.0% at 2:25 p.m. At 3:37 p.m., CoreWeave was down 13.3%, Nebius 12.8%, AMD 5.7%, and Nvidia 1.3%.
