Nvidia Floats Annual Software Subscription Fee on Top of Its Data Center Chips
Jensen Huang, head of technology company Nvidia, proposed at the GTC Berlin event an annual software subscription fee in addition to selling data center graphics processors. As an example, he cited roughly $2,000 per year for each processor.
Nvidia, a technology company that makes graphics processors (GPUs) for data centers, is considering earning revenue from software alongside its hardware sales. Company chief Jensen Huang recently presented the idea of an annual software subscription fee at the GTC Berlin event. Customers would then pay for software in addition to buying the chips themselves.
Already high prices
Prices of Nvidia's data center graphics cards are already measured in tens of thousands of euros per unit. The proposed subscription would therefore be an extra cost on top of already expensive hardware.
An illustrative example
As an illustration, Huang mentioned about 1,788 euros, or 2,000 US dollars, per year for each graphics processor. This is an illustrative calculation rather than a confirmed price. So far only this example has been cited publicly, and other terms of the possible fee have not been set out here.
The idea was voiced by the company's chief executive in a public address, which makes it a clear signal of a possible business direction: offering paid software alongside hardware, with its use paid for every year.
