Nvidia AI Chip Prices to Rise About 17%, Server Makers Tell Customers

Prices for some of Nvidia’s flagship AI server chip systems are set to rise about 17%, according to two people whose firms were notified by server makers that provide such systems.

The price hikes generally apply to Grace Blackwell 300 and Vera Rubin 200 chip systems that are due to be delivered next year, these people said. The changes could increase the cost of a 1 gigawatt data center by at least $5 billion, based on the current price of chip systems for such a facility.

Memory and other component price hikes are driving some of the Nvidia price increases, these people said. The price jump adds to a growing array of cost surprises for cloud providers and other data center developers, including unexpected power delays, political fights, the revocation of state tax incentives, and other technical challenges facing new facilities.

It isn’t clear whether cloud providers that buy Nvidia chips will eat some of the price hikes or pass the costs to customers that rent the chips. One person with knowledge of the price hikes said cloud providers will almost certainly need to pass on the increases to their customers.

Other companies such as Meta and OpenAI are obtaining chips for their own AI computing. (Nvidia plans to provide around $100 billion in credit support to OpenAI for a large Nvidia server facility planned for Ohio.)

The expected price increases mean that a 72-GPU Vera Rubin rack would cost around $8 million apiece.

Companies that develop their own AI server chips, including Nvidia and OpenAI, have raced to strike long term memory supply agreements with providers this year to avoid shortages or major price increases down the line. However, Nvidia’s memory needs dwarf those of other AI chip developers.

Nvidia recently struck investments and partnerships with three key providers of land and power connections for AI data centers to gain more influence over new, planned facilities. That could help it avoid scenarios in which facilities aren’t ready to bring its chips online even when the chips are delivered.

Spokespeople for Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg earlier reported on the price increase.