SAN JOSE, California, March 18 Reuters Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang on Monday kicked off his company39;s annual developer conference with a slew of announcements designed to keep the chip maker in a dominant position in the artificialintelligence industry.

On a hockey arena stage in the heart of Silicon Valley, Huang introduced Nvidia39;s latest chip, which is 30 times speedier at some tasks than its predecessor.

He also detailed a new set of software tools to help developers sell AI models more easily to companies that use technology from Nvidia, whose customers include most of the world39;s biggest technology firms.

Nvidia39;s chip and software announcements at GTC 2024 will help determine whether the company can maintain its 80 share of the market for AI chips.

I hope you realize this is not a concert, Huang said, wearing his signature leather jacket and joking that the day39;s keynote would be full of dense math and science.

It was a nod to how Nvidia, once mostly known among computer gaming enthusiasts, has earned recognition on par with tech giants like Microsoft and has become a Wall Street standout, with sales that more than doubled in its most recent fiscal year to surpass 60 billion.

Nvidia39;s new flagship chip, called the B200, takes two squares of silicon the size of the company39;s previous offering and binds them together into a single component.

While the B200 Blackwell chip is 30 times speedier at tasks like serving up answers from…