Hardware.
The specialised chips and data centres that do the heavy lifting behind every AI answer.
What it is.
- AI runs on graphics chips (GPUs) that do millions of small calculations at once. Nvidia makes most of them, and its current flagship is called Vera Rubin.
- Thousands of these chips sit in data centres. Microsoft has committed A$25 billion and AWS A$20 billion to build more of them in Australia by 2029.
- New laptops, called AI PCs, add a small AI chip so simple jobs can run on the device itself.
Why it matters to you.
- You almost never need to buy AI hardware. You rent it by the hour through the cloud.
- Chip supply and data centre capacity drive what AI costs and how fast it improves.
- When replacing laptops, an AI PC is worth considering, but it is not a must yet.