Nvidia introduces $3500 ‘robot brain’ for next-generation AI robots

Leading AI graphics chip maker Nvidia has released Jetson Thor. This powerful new robotics supercomputer promises to act as the brain of the next generation of AI-powered humanoid robots. It is claimed to be 7.5 times faster than the company’s previous generation and can be installed in production-ready robots made by Amazon or Meta.

The new chip is capable of running generative AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini, and is designed to run real-time robotic applications that require fast processing of data from multiple sensors. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang sees this humanoid agent as the US firm’s biggest growth opportunity in the coming years. “We’ve built Jetson Thor for the millions of developers working on robotic systems that interact with and increasingly shape the physical world.”

The Jetson Thor chips are equipped with 128GB of memory, which is essential for big AI models. The company suggests that these chips can be used for self-driving cars as well, especially from Chinese brands. Moreover, Jetson Thor is being adopted by research labs at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Zurich to power autonomous robots in medical research settings and for autonomous tasks.

Currently, the Jetson Thor developer kit is available for $3,499, while Jetson T5000 production modules start at $2,999 for bulk orders. Nvidia has also announced that its DRIVE AGX Thor developer kit for autonomous vehicles is now available for preorder,  with deliveries to start in September.