'Enjoy your new ...', says message card on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's gift to humanoid robot

AI chip

giant Nvidia has unveiled a powerful new "brain" for robots, the Jetson Thor module. With a dramatic launch video featuring a humanoid robot receiving a new "brain" from Nvidia's CEO

Jensen Huang

, the company declared that robots worldwide are "about to get a lot smarter." The new Jetson Thor is designed to boost a wide range of robots, from humanoids to warehouse automatons. It boasts a staggering 7.5 times more AI computing power than its predecessor, the Orin module, along with 3.1 times the CPU performance and double the memory. This substantial leap in power is aimed at enabling robots to handle complex tasks more effectively and operate with greater autonomy.Nvidia launched Thor via a video that features the Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang giving a gift box to a humanoid robot with a message card that says, “Enjoy your new brain.” The clip then shows multiple

humanoid robots

opening the box to find the new device that is said to be designed to make it a lot cleverer.

Nvidia CEO calls robotics a major revenue opportunity

In a blog post, Nvidia said that beyond commercial applications, researchers at top institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the University of Zurich will also be deploying Thor to advance perception, navigation, and sensor fusion in their robotics research. Other tech giants, including Amazon and Meta, are already users of the Jetson chip series, and companies like OpenAI are reportedly evaluating the new modules.

While robotics currently represents only a small fraction of Nvidia's total revenue, CEO Jensen Huang has highlighted it as the company's biggest growth opportunity for the coming years.Thor is purpose-built for real-time robotics. It can process high-bandwidth data from multiple sensors with ultra-low latency, which is crucial for a robot's perception and decision-making. A key feature is its ability to run large generative AI and transformer-based models directly on the device, reducing a robot's dependence on cloud connectivity for complex calculations. Two prominent robotics companies are reported to be already set to integrate Thor into their machines. According to a report in Digital Trends, Boston Dynamics is using it to enhance the perception and manipulation skills of its Atlas humanoid robot, allowing it to process complex multimodal AI models in real time. Similarly, Agility Robotics is adopting Thor for its 6th-generation Digit robot to improve its real-time perception and efficiency in warehouse settings.The Jetson AGX Thor developer kit is now available starting at $3,499.