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A grey rectangular building on the outskirts of San Jose
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houses row upon row of blinking machines. Tangles of
colourful wires connect high-end servers, networking

gear and data-storage systems. Bulky air-conditioning
units whirr overhead. The noise forces visitors to shout.

The building belongs to Equinix, a firm which leases
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data-centre space. The equipment inside belongs to
corporate customers that are increasingly using it to
run their artificial-intelligence (AI) systems. The AI
gold rush, spurred by the astounding sophistication
of tgenerativeu models such as ChatGPT, a hit virtual

conversationalist, promises rich profits for those who
harness the technologyss potential. As in the early days
of any gold rush, though, it is already minting fortunes
for the sellers of the requisite picks and shovels.

On May 24th Nvidia, which designs the semiconductors
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of choice for many AI servers, beat analystss revenue

and profit forecasts for the three months to April and
said it expected sales of $11bn in its current quarter, half
as much again as what Wall Street was predicting. On
May 29th Nvidiass boss, Jensen Huang, declared that the
world is at tthe tipping point of a new computing erau.
The next day the companyss market value, which had
leapt by 30% a er its earnings, brie y hit $1trn.

Other chip firms, from fellow designers like AMD to
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manufacturers such as TSMC of Taiwan, have been

388 Nvidia is not the only firm cashing in on the AI gold rush