Tech TLVNvidia SVP software: "Without Israeli entrepreneurship we would not have reached where we are as a company"
Tech TLV
Nvidia SVP software: "Without Israeli entrepreneurship we would not have reached where we are as a company"
Amit Krig, SVP software and NIC Product line at Nvidia and the head of its Israeli site, explained that the chip giant's commitment to Israel stems from the people: "Mellanox's systems sit deep within the infrastructure that makes ChatGPT possible"
"Artificial intelligence will enter every area of our lives," said Amit Krig, SVP software and NIC Product line at Nvidia and the head of its Israeli site, in a conversation with Calcalist journalist Omer Kabir at Calcalist's Tech TLV conference held in collaboration with Bank Leumi and PAPAYA.
At the beginning of his remarks, Krig mentioned the company's employee Avinatan Or, who was kidnapped from Nova party together with his girlfriend Noa Argamani: "I am sending support here to the family and pray for the return of all the abductees.”
How did Nvidia Israel react and deal with the war?
"The first thing we did was raise funds. We have a system according to which for every shekel an employee donates, Nvidia doubles the money. This time we tripled donations. We raised, from all the employees in the world, $5 million, and the company added another $10 million. Everything was donated to organizations. On the first day we opened a kitchen that donates food. Some 20,000 portions of food have been sent out to the soldiers so far. We also donate to the children had to be evacuated."
What is the responsibility of high-tech in Israel?
"As the number one economic engine in Israel, its responsibility is very significant, and that of the big companies even more so. Beyond the help, we encouraged the workers to go and spend money to keep the small and medium-sized businesses going. We recruited hundreds of workers last year, and we didn't stop in October - we recruited hundreds this year as well. We brought forward the launch of Israel-1, one of the ten most powerful computers in the world. We brought forward its activation by two months and it forms the infrastructure for a global AI cluster."
Why are you all so committed to Israel? After all, you don't have manufacturing plants here.
"In one word - the people. Without Israeli entrepreneurship we would not have reached where we are as a company. Mellanox's systems sit deep within the infrastructure that makes ChatGPT possible (Nvidia acquired Israeli company Mellanox for $6.9 billion in March 2019). The social structure and mutual responsibility that we have here is also important, most of the workers will not want to move from here. The war actually sharpened this, Jensen Huang (CEO and founder of the company) also sees the durability of Israel and Nvidia's activity here, and the global headquarters really appreciate it."
What is Israel's place in the artificial intelligence revolution?
"When you want to do a quick analysis with artificial intelligence you can't use a single GPU, you need to connect many units. This creates bottlenecks, and this is where the Israeli technology of network flexibility and calculations comes in. This is done during the flow of information and not only at the endpoints. All of this is developed here in Israel and the core is based on Mellanox."
A year ago most people didn't know about ChatGPT, and a real revolution took place here. What will happen this year?
"We at Nvidia have been working on artificial intelligence for years, but what is happening today is that it enters every field. We are flooded with applications. Chat is just the beginning, artificial intelligence will enter every part of our lives."
