Nvidia generative AI chip prices rose sharply in Japan

With the depreciation of the Japanese yen, the prices of semiconductor devices provided by American company Nvidia for data centers have soared in Japan, leading to higher costs for developers in the field of generative artificial intelligence. As Nvidia dominates approximately 80% to 90% of the global data center GPU market, its official sales partner, GDEP Advance, raised the catalog price of the cutting-edge H100 graphic processing unit (GPU) by 16% in September, reaching 5.44 million yen (36,300 USD), which translates to an increase of approximately 700,000 yen. However, the USD price remained unchanged, and the recent depreciation of the Japanese yen has been reflected in the prices in Japan. As the USD to JPY exchange rate has fallen to around 150 yen, this has pushed the price of the H100 in Japan to its highest level since October 2022. The H100's cost is approximately 2.2 times that of the previous generation A100 GPU, adding cost pressure to companies involved in generative AI development. Nevertheless, these companies seem willing to accept higher prices in pursuit of high-performance GPUs.

The US dollar price of the H100 GPU is unchanged, but it is up 16% this September in Japan. (Picture from Nvidia)