FPGA Prices Soar as ChatGPT’s Popularity Surges

Global FPGA leader Xilinx recently announced an official price increase, according to the semiconductor industry research found that FPGA in artificial intelligence, automotive electronics and data center, and other emerging markets to further lead the industry growth.

The implementation of AI industrialization such as ChatGPT needs to further reduce the cost of computing power and power consumption, which is expected to further promote the demand growth and technology upgrading of data center hardware equipment. In the context of increasing AI investment by global technology companies, the development of the chip industry is expected to benefit in the long term.

FPGA chip plays a certain role in the targeted training project of AI model

ChatGPT needs at least tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPU A100 to support the computing power infrastructure. The rapid increase in chip demand will further drive up the average chip price, and the subsequent CPU+FPGA model is expected to participate in it.

ChatGPT is based on Transformer technology. With the continuous iteration of the model, the demand for computing power is increasing. As a programmable chip, an FPGA chip can be extended for specific functions, which has a certain play space in the targeted training project of the AI model.

According to media reports, at the end of 2022, AMD announced that it would increase the price of its Xilinx brand FPGA products. From January 9, 2023, the price of the Spartan 6 series will increase by 25%, the price of the Versal series will not increase, and the price of other Xilinx products will increase by 8%.

The main reason for the price increase is the tight capacity, in the production line orders and tight supply, manufacturers take advantage of the situation to raise prices. FPGA chip prices are expected to remain high in 2023 amid strong demand (data center construction, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving) and tight supply.

The FPGA market size continues to increase every year

According to the FPGA Market report, the global FPGA market size is expected to grow from $6.86 billion in 2021 to $12.58 billion in 2025, at a CAGR of about 16.4%.

In recent years, the development of emerging markets has accelerated, and application products have a higher demand for data processing capabilities. FPGA in artificial intelligence, automotive electronics and data center, and other emerging markets to further lead the industry growth.