The Watchlist — Who's Next in AI Infrastructure

Challenger silicon

Shipping or credible alternatives to the incumbent GPUs — each betting on a different corner of the workload.

CW Cerebras WSE-3Wafer-scale compute with tokens-per-second records — and an IPO on file. Verzending Chip GL Groq LPUDeterministic inference at famous speed; Saudi-scale deployment deals. Verzending Chip ES Etched SohuThe all-in transformer ASIC — if it ships, the specialization era begins. In ontwikkeling Chip DM d-Matrix CorsairIn-memory compute aimed at cheap interactive serving. Opschaling Chip FR FuriosaAI RNGD150 W LLM inference; turned down Meta to stay independent. Opschaling Chip RR Rebellions REBELKorea's merged champion, fabbed by Samsung. In ontwikkeling Chip TB Tenstorrent BlackholeJim Keller's open RISC-V stack, sold and licensed. Verzending Chip QC Qualcomm Cloud AI / AI200Mobile-silicon economics re-entering the rack in 2026. Aangekondigd Chip

The next platform generation

Already announced, already contracted — the hardware the 2026–27 buildout will install.

NR NVIDIA RubinHBM4, the Vera CPU, NVL144 racks — the incumbent's next lap. Opschaling Chip NR NVIDIA Rubin CPXA cheaper GDDR7 chip just for long-context prefill — inference splits in two. Aangekondigd Chip AI AMD Instinct MI400 / MI450432 GB of HBM4 and the OpenAI 6 GW deal riding on it. Opschaling Chip AT AWS Trainium33 nm and a claimed 4x — the custom-silicon bet compounds. Aangekondigd Chip GT Google TPU v7 (Ironwood)9,216-chip pods for the inference age, with Anthropic as anchor. Opschaling Chip

New fabrics, memory and light

The interconnect and memory transitions that decide whether open ecosystems can match proprietary racks.

UA UALinkThe open answer to NVLink — 1,024 accelerators per pod, everyone-but-NVIDIA. Technologie UE Ultra EthernetEthernet rebuilt for AI; spec 1.0 shipped, silicon arriving. Technologie CP Co-Packaged OpticsLight moves onto the switch package; ~3x interconnect efficiency. Technologie LI LightmatterPhotonic interposers — light inside the package itself. Bedrijf CA Celestial AIOptical links to disaggregated memory — an exit from the HBM wall. Bedrijf HB HBM42,048-bit interfaces and foundry logic dies; memory and logic start merging. Technologie CX CXLPooled memory over PCIe wiring — slow burn, big if it lands. Technologie

New power

The generation wave AI money is financing — targets, not certainties, and labeled as such.

SM Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)Factory-built reactors sized for campuses; every date is a target. Technologie OK OkloFast reactors with a 12 GW Switch framework and a build-own-operate model. Bedrijf XE X-energyAmazon-backed pebble-bed reactors targeting ~2030. Bedrijf KH Kairos Hermes / Google FleetGoogle's 500 MW fleet order — first Gen IV construction permits in the US. Under construction (demo) Energieproject TN TerraPower Natrium (Kemmerer)The furthest-along advanced reactor build in America. In aanbouw Energieproject FC Fuel CellsBloom-style bridge power while the grid queue clears. Technologie HC Homer City Energy Campus4.5 GW of gas-for-AI on a demolished coal site — the biggest such plan. Aangekondigd Energieproject

Beyond the transformer

Architecture bets that would redraw the hardware map if they win.

SS State-Space Models (Mamba)Linear-time sequence models — production hybrids already ship. Concept WM World ModelsLearning reality's dynamics, not just text — DeepMind, NVIDIA and World Labs all in. Concept M( Marble (World Labs)Fei-Fei Li's spatial-intelligence bet, now a product. Huidig AI-model G3 Genie 3Playable generated worlds — training grounds for agents and robots. Huidig AI-model TT Test-time Compute & ReasoningThe scaling axis that already rewrote inference demand once. Concept

Beleidsregel: elke datum op de gekoppelde records is het door de fabrikant opgegeven doel, als zodanig gemarkeerd. Deze pagina volgt claims — onderschrijft ze niet, en is nooit beleggingsadvies.

De watchlist

Challenger silicon

The next platform generation

New fabrics, memory and light

New power

Beyond the transformer