NVIDIA releases the next generation of its cutting-edge 'robot brain'

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is bullish on the future of robotics, and sees it as the chipmaker's biggest opportunity outside of AI. Today the company announced the next generation of its Jetson AGX system-on-module called Jetson Thor. The developer kit and T5000 production modules are computers designed for physical AI and robotics.

The company has been iterating on these robot brains for a few years now, with each model more powerful than the last. The newest generation is powered by NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU architecture and offers 7.5 times more AI compute and 3.5 times greater energy efficiency than its predecessor, the Jetson Orin. These chips can run generative AI models, including large language and visual models, to help robots interpret the world around them. “We've built Jetson Thor for the millions of developers working on robotic systems that interact with and increasingly shape the physical world,” said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.

The module is powered by NVIDIA's full-stack Jetson software platform, which is purpose-built for physical AI and robotics applications. The company counts Amazon, Meta, Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics among its robotics clients using Jetson chips, which should give you an idea of who the target audience for this technology is. The Jetson AGX Thor is now on sale for $3,499 as a developer kit, and NVIDIA will sell the Thor T5000 modules for installation in production-ready robots. These will be sold at a wholesale price of $2,999 per module for a minimum order of 1,000 or more.