California partners with Nvidia to bring AI resources to colleges

LOS ANGELES – California is partnering with tech giant Nvidia to help train students, college professors, programmers and data scientists in artificial intelligence, officials announced Friday.

The initiative is part of an effort to expand resources so students, educators and staff — particularly in higher education — can gain new skills in generative AI and advance their careers, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said. The partnership aims to add new curriculum and certifications, hardware and software, and AI labs and workshops.

“California’s world-leading companies are pioneering breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and it’s important that we create more opportunities for Californians to gain skills in using this technology and advance their careers,” Newsom said in a statement.

As part of a voluntary agreement with Nvidia, California said it will introduce skills and training for government positions, including new roles for artificial intelligence specialists in government.

Nvidia has seen a surge in demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power artificial intelligence, or AI applications. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker’s invention of the graphics processing unit, or GPU, helped spur growth in the PC gaming market and redefine computer graphics. Now, Nvidia’s specialized chips are key components that help power various forms of AI, including the latest generative AI chatbots like Google’s ChatGPT and Gemini.

“We are in the early stages of a new industrial revolution that will transform trillion-dollar industries around the world,” said Nvidia founder Jensen Huang.