Breaking the Bottleneck | Issue 43
[3/25/2024] All Things NVIDIA, Industrial Heat Pumps, XR in Manufacturing & More!
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Content I Enjoyed Last Week 🏭🗞️🔬 📚
News
Why A Shrinking US Aluminum Industry Is Bad for Clean Energy [Canary Media]
Alcoa, a major U.S. aluminum producer, recently made a significant move by signing a $2.2 billion deal to expand its global supply chain, anticipating a surge in demand due to the clean energy transition. Crucial for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and more, aluminum is expected to increase global demand by up to 80 percent by 2050. Despite this, Alcoa and other U.S. producers face domestic challenges due to high energy costs and competition from China, significantly reducing U.S. aluminum production. In the past 18 months, three major U.S. aluminum plants have scaled back, and the U.S. now only operates four smelters and has two additional smelters with curtailed production; clean-energy advocates are pushing for the revival of domestic aluminum production. Decarbonizing aluminum production is seen as crucial, as about 70 percent of the industry's emissions come from electricity generation for smelting. The challenge lies in providing large volumes of power for the smelting process at competitive prices. Recycling aluminum requires significantly less energy than producing primary aluminum but still requires a quality mix of primary aluminum. To US has looked to address these issues via the IRA which offers a 10 percent production tax credit and has expanded the 48C investment tax credit, which includes $10 billion for reducing emissions in heavy industrial sectors like aluminum. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy has launched a $6.3 billion program aimed at reducing emissions from heavy industries, including aluminum.
Welcome to School. It's Actually a Factory [Bloomberg]
As of January, there were over 600,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S., exacerbated by pandemic disruptions and long-term recruitment and retention issues. To address this, GE and other manufacturers are becoming more involved in training and education. GE, for instance, has expanded a welding training program in its Beavercreek, Ohio, factory, which is essential for aerospace engine production. The pandemic led to layoffs, and many of those workers have since found other employment, leaving GE with a significant gap in skilled labor. The Beavercreek plant, which previously required a maximum of 10 new welders annually, needed 31 at the beginning of 2024. GE's training program is now designed to produce up to 48 qualified welders annually, targeting individuals with basic skills who need specialized training. Siemens is another example. They have implemented a new training protocol at its $150 million plant in Fort Worth, Texas, incorporating former educators to bridge the gap for workers new to manufacturing. This standardized training has widened the pool of potential employees, including those unfamiliar with factory work. Finally, GAF, a roofing product manufacturer, also runs a training academy, but it focuses on training contractors rather than its workforce. Since its launch in 2020, GAF's roofing academy has trained over 3,000 individuals, successfully placing about 1,600 in roofing-related jobs. GAF has partnered with organizations like the Labor Department’s Job Corps to attract candidates and works with local entities to train non-violent offenders.
Intel Receives $8.5 Billion in Grants to Build Chip Plants [NY Times]
President Biden recently awarded Intel $8.5 billion in grants as part of a broader initiative to enhance U.S. semiconductor production, a move aligned with his economic strategy. This grant, issued under the CHIPS Act of 2022, represents the largest federal investment in semiconductor manufacturing and aims to reposition the United States as a leading producer in this sector. This significant investment in Intel will support the construction and expansion of facilities in various states, including Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico, and Oregon. It is expected to generate over 10,000 manufacturing jobs and approximately 20,000 construction jobs. Furthermore, the projects are designed to enhance the U.S.'s capacity to produce advanced semiconductors, which are integral in modern technologies like AI, smartphones, and military hardware. In addition to the grants, Intel is poised to receive up to $11 billion in loans and can also claim federal tax credits covering 25% of its U.S. expansion costs, projected to exceed $100 billion over five years. The goal is to boost the U.S. production of leading-edge chips to about 20% of the global supply by the decade's end. Intel's use of these funds includes establishing new sites and modernizing existing facilities in various states, emphasizing advanced semiconductor manufacturing and packaging.
Below are Some Announcements from NVIDIA’s GTC This Past Week
TSMC & Synopsys Bring NVIDIA Lithography Platform to Production [NVIDIA]
NVIDIA announced that TSMC and Synopsys are entering production with NVIDIA's computational lithography platform, aiming to enhance the manufacturing of advanced semiconductor chips. This platform, integrating NVIDIA cuLitho, will be used in TSMC's production processes and to support NVIDIA's latest Blackwell architecture GPUs. Computational lithography, a critical component in chip manufacturing, traditionally requires substantial computing resources. Typically, a single mask set for chip production could take over 30 million CPU compute hours, necessitating large data centers within semiconductor foundries. NVIDIA's platform and accelerated computing approach allow 350 NVIDIA H100 systems to replace 40,000 CPU systems, leading to faster production, reduced costs, and lower space and power requirements. Testing of cuLitho revealed a 45x speedup in curvilinear flows and almost a 60x improvement in traditional Manhattan-style flows. The collaboration between NVIDIA, TSMC, and Synopsys is essential in managing the increased complexity and computational costs as semiconductor technology advances to angstrom-level scaling.
NVIDIA Announces GR00T Foundation Model for Humanoid Robots [NVIDIA]
NVIDIA unveiled Project GR00T, a general-purpose foundation model aimed at advancing robotics and embodied AI, particularly in humanoid robots. Accompanying this announcement, NVIDIA introduced the Jetson Thor computer, based on the NVIDIA Thor system-on-a-chip (SoC), and significant upgrades to the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform. Project GR00T (Generalist Robot 00 Technology) helps robots learn skills such as coordination and dexterity by observing humans. Jetson Thor, specifically created for humanoid robots, is a computing platform with a modular architecture optimized for high performance, power efficiency, and size. Its SoC boasts a next-generation GPU based on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, providing immense AI processing power. The Isaac platform enhancements include new robot learning and development tools, such as Isaac Lab for reinforcement learning and OSMO for compute orchestration. Isaac Lab, a GPU-accelerated application, facilitates running thousands of parallel simulations for robot learning. OSMO helps coordinate various development workloads across distributed environments. Additionally, NVIDIA announced Isaac Manipulator and Isaac Perceptor. Isaac Manipulator offers advanced dexterity and AI capabilities for robotic arms, providing significant speedups in path planning and efficiency improvements in task automation. Isaac Perceptor enhances multi-camera, 3D surround-vision capabilities, crucial for autonomous mobile robots in industries like manufacturing and fulfillment.
Nvidia & Qualcomm join Open Source Robotics Alliance [TechCrunch]
The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) recently announced the inception of the Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA), a new initiative focusing on the development and maintenance of open-source robotics projects, with an emphasis on the Robot Operating System (ROS). Nvidia’s participation revolves around integrating accelerated computing and AI with ROS 2 to bolster development across various applications. Similarly, Intrinsic, having acquired Open Robotics’ commercial wing and with its CEO Wendy Tan White and former Open Robotics CEO Brian Gerkey actively involved, demonstrates a deep investment in the open-source community. The initiative will extend its governance to other key projects like the Gazebo simulator and Open-RMF, which aims to enhance robotic system interoperability across companies.
NVIDIA’s Omniverse APIs [NVIDIA]
Research:
Industrial Heat Pumps: Five Considerations for Future Growth [McKinsey]
Industrial heat pumps, particularly those with power sizes beyond 200 kWth, are emerging as a critical component in the energy transition. These heat pumps, which use electricity instead of traditional fossil fuels, can be powered entirely by renewable energy sources and are significantly more efficient than traditional boilers. They can provide heat at higher temperature ranges and larger capacities than residential versions, making them suitable for industries with high energy demands like food and beverage, pulp and paper, and chemicals. Industrial heat pumps are currently underrepresented in the global industrial heat market, accounting for only about 5% of the total, but they hold considerable potential for industry-wide adoption. The market for industrial heat pumps is expected to grow rapidly, with an anticipated growth of more than 15% annually until 2030. This growth is driven by the need for the industrial sector to reduce its significant contribution to global CO2 emissions, where about two-thirds of these emissions are used for heating. Additionally, heat pumps could play an important role in district heating, which is largely fossil-based and accounts for about 1% of total CO2 emissions. The performance of industrial heat pumps is determined by several components, including compressors, heat exchangers, and control software. The choice of refrigerant is also crucial, with a growing trend towards natural refrigerants due to environmental regulations. Additionally, heat pumps offering both heating and cooling capabilities present attractive use cases, particularly in sectors with varying temperature requirements.
The State of Extended Reality (XR) in Manufacturing [HTC]
The report surveyed 400 manufacturing professionals to learn more about XR’s role in the current landscape. Key findings from the report include:
Half of the respondents already use XR (177 versus 179 who do not).
More than nine in 10 respondents who currently use XR felt safer on the job after going through an XR-simulated environment.
XR has achieved clear returns on investment (ROI) for 75% of respondents, with benefits that include reduced material waste, time savings, and cost savings.
95% of XR-using respondents felt safer on the job after going through an XR-simulated environment
40% of respondents foresee the future of manufacturing, which heavily relies on XR for inventory management, quality control, inspection, maintenance, and repair.
Chart of the Week:
Podcasts/Video:
Driving Manufacturing Efficiency with AI [MIT Sloan Management Review]
Manufacturing Deals🏭💵
Physical Intelligence - A company building software intended to power robots that can learn a wide range of tasks
$70 million [ Seed] - From Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks Capital Partners, Lux Capital and Khosla Ventures
Telo Trucks - A company developing a small-footprint EV truck aimed at city-dwellers who need a smaller option
$5.4 million [Seed] - Led by Go Ahead Ventures and joined by Underdog Labs, WorkPlay Ventures
Planned Downtime 🏭🧑🔧
Lex Friedman & Sam Altman