A surge in requests for AI services like Gemini, Grok, and ChatGPT has prompted concern that Nvidia GPUs could become even harder to get hold of, as demand from AI companies and services for GPU power rises. The release of a new ChatGPT filter that emulates the style of Studio Ghibli helped trigger a surge in demand for AI services. Several services were forced to implement Rate Limits in order to cool down the load on the servers.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Twitter/X “It's super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT. But our GPUs are melting.” In addition to this, xAI’s Grok account posted about high usage, claiming that the company is “working hard to scale the GPUs up to meet the demand,” adding that it is “scaling up GPUs like crazy”.

Some users and analysts have concerns that this is the start of a deeper problem, however. Nvidia has been making bank from the rise in demand for GPUs that can power AI services like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Much of Nvidia's focus has turned towards AI technology and providing AI GPU clusters for data centers, so desktop graphics card consumers may start to feel neglected.

How is GPU stock right now?

The launch of the RTX 50 series was not a success for Nvidia. Even disregarding the Quality Assurance problems, supply constraints have made it difficult for consumers to find a GPU for sale. When they do, the prices are soaring high above the MSRP. Nvidia has done little to mitigate the problem, causing a big dip in consumer confidence in the brand.

When viewed together with the problematic RTX 50 series launch, the rising demand for AI GPUs is causing many customers and analysts to voice concern that AI companies will buy up all the available stock of GPUs.

DeepSeek proved that even lower-end consumer-grade GPUs can power AI models. As a result, AI start-up firms may turn to the consumer market to get their AI services off the ground. This drives demand – and prices – even further.

Unless Nvidia can do something to address the rising demand, consumers may continue to see ‘Out of stock' labels on GPU listings for some time to come as it shifts even more focus to AI chips, over desktop graphics cards.

About the Author

Rebecca Hills-Duty

Writing and journalism experience at VRFocus, UploadVR, The Escapist, HTC, PC Gamer, Tech Radar+ and Dexerto. Can sometimes be found playing with retro tech.