Nvidia's biggest conference of the year, GTC 2025, is set to begin on Monday in San Jose, with the tech world eagerly anticipating a slew of announcements from the company. The event, which runs until Friday, will feature over 1,000 sessions with 2,000 speakers and close to 400 exhibitors, making it a hub of activity for the tech industry.

At the heart of the conference is CEO Jensen Huang's keynote address, scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT at the SAP Center. According to Nvidia, Huang will focus on AI and accelerating computing technologies, with the company teasing reveals related to robotics, sovereign AI, AI agents, and automotive. This has sparked widespread speculation about what new innovations Nvidia might unveil, particularly in the realm of GPUs.

One of the most anticipated announcements is expected to be a new, upgraded iteration of Nvidia's Blackwell chip lineup. During the company's most recent earnings call, Huang confirmed that the upcoming Blackwell B300 series, codenamed Blackwell Ultra, is slated for release in the second half of this year. The new cards are expected to pack more memory (288GB), a feature that will be attractive to customers looking to run and train memory-hungry AI models.

Rubin, Nvidia's next-gen GPU series, is also likely to get a mention at GTC alongside Blackwell Ultra. Due out in 2026, Rubin promises to deliver a significant step up in computing power, with Huang describing it as a "big, big, huge step up" during the earnings call. Moreover, Huang has hinted that he will discuss post-Rubin products at GTC, which could include Rubin Ultra GPUs or the GPU architecture that will come after the Rubin family.

Beyond GPUs, Nvidia is expected to shed light on its approach to recent quantum computing advancements. The company has scheduled a "quantum day" for GTC, during which it will host executives from prominent companies in the space to "[map] the path toward useful quantum applications." This move is seen as a strategic effort to stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Nvidia's GTC 2025 announcements come at a critical time for the company. Early Blackwell cards reportedly suffered from severe overheating issues, causing customers to cut their orders. Additionally, U.S. export controls and fears of tariffs have massively depressed Nvidia's stock price in recent months. The success of Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, which developed efficient models competitive with models from leading AI labs, has also prompted investors to worry about the demand for powerful GPUs like Blackwell.

However, Huang remains optimistic, asserting that DeepSeek's rise to prominence will in fact be a net positive for Nvidia because it will accelerate the broader adoption of AI technology. He has also pointed to the growth of power-hungry so-called "reasoning" models like OpenAI's o1 as Nvidia's next mountain to climb. Despite the challenges, Nvidia reported a record-breaking quarter in February, notching $39.3 billion in revenue and projecting $43 billion in revenue for the subsequent quarter.

As the tech world waits with bated breath for Nvidia's GTC 2025 announcements, one thing is clear: the company is poised to make a significant impact on the AI landscape. With its dominance in the GPU market and its commitment to driving innovation, Nvidia is well-positioned to shape the future of AI and computing.