SAN FRANCISCO/TAIPEI, May 19 (Reuters) - Nvidia ( NVDA )

announced a new software platform on Monday that will create a

marketplace for cloud-based artificial intelligence chips.

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) graphics processors, or GPUs, dominate the market

for training AI models and a raft of new cloud players called

"neoclouds" such as CoreWeave ( CRWV ) and Nebius Group ( NBIS ) have emerged to

specialize in renting out Nvidia's ( NVDA ) chips to software developers.

The Santa Clara, California-based company announced the new

tool called Lepton that lets cloud computing companies sell GPU

capacity in one spot.

In addition to CoreWeave ( CRWV ) and Nebius ( NBIS ), other firms

joining the Lepton platform are Crusoe, Firmus, Foxconn, GMI

Cloud, Lambda, Nscale, SoftBank Corp and Yotta Data Services.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) cloud vice president Alexis Bjorlin said that despite

demand surging for chips at startups and large companies, the

process of finding available chips has been "very manual".

"It's almost like everyone's calling everyone for what

compute capacity is available," Bjorlin told Reuters in an

interview. "We're just trying to make it seamless, because it

enables the ecosystem to grow and develop, and it enables all of

the clouds - the global clouds and the new cloud providers -

access to Nvidia's ( NVDA ) entire developer ecosystem."

Absent so far from Nvidia's ( NVDA ) Lepton partner list are major

cloud providers such as Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon Web Services

or Alphabet's Google. Bjorlin said the system

is designed for them to be able to sell their capacity on the

marketplace if they choose.

Lepton will eventually allow developers to search for Nvidia ( NVDA )

chips located in specific countries to meet data storage

requirements, Bjorlin said. It will also allow companies that

already own some Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips to more seamlessly search for more

to rent.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) did not disclose what the business model will be for

the new software platform or say whether it would charge

commissions or fees to either developers or clouds.

However, Bjorlin said developers will "still retain their

own relationship to the underlying compute providers, so they've

contracted directly with them."