Nvidia says it is sitting on "exciting products and news" it wants to share with the world, which presumably includes an announcement on Ampere, the company's next-generation GPU for the next generation of GeForce graphics cards. However, Nvidia has decided to hold off sharing major news announcements this month in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
"This isn’t the right time. We’re going to hold off on sharing our GTC news for now. That way, our employees, partners, the media and analysts who follow us, and our customers around the world can focus on staying safe and reducing the spread of the virus," Nvidia said.
Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference is an annual event in which several announcements are typically made. It's not always focused on gaming, but it was widely anticipated that Nvidia would share something—anything—about Ampere at this year's event.
Two weeks ago, Nvidia shifted GTC to a digital-only event this year, as large gatherings are generally being discouraged in order to slow the spread of Covid-19. Then last week, Nvidia cancelled its planned keynote address, and said it would issue news announcements on Tuesday, March 24, that had been scheduled to be shared at the keynote.
That is no longer the case.
"We will still stream tons of great content from researchers and developers who have prepared great talks. This is a time to focus on our family, our friends, our community. Our employees are working from home. Many hourly workers will not need to work but they’ll all be fully paid," Nvidia said.
As much as I and many others are looking forward to learning about Ampere, it's hard to argue against this move. It's a major announcement, and simply put, priorities have changed. Nvidia also deserves kudos for committing to paying workers their full wages while taking time off.
This also means we'll likely have to wait a bit longer to know what that cryptic blinking eye animation was all about.
