Gamers8 Riyadh Set Alight with $2Mln in Prizes at Fortnite Tournament

Crowds at the Gamer8 event in Riyadh. (Saleh al-Ghannam)
Crowds at the Gamer8 event in Riyadh. (Saleh al-Ghannam)
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Gamers8 Riyadh Set Alight with $2Mln in Prizes at Fortnite Tournament

Crowds at the Gamer8 event in Riyadh. (Saleh al-Ghannam)
Crowds at the Gamer8 event in Riyadh. (Saleh al-Ghannam)

An elite Fortnite tournament, one of many organized within the framework of the Gamers8 Esports and Music Festival organized by the Saudi Esports Federation, will launch at Boulevard of Riyadh on Thursday.

The tournament will see some of the most prominent names in esports take part and compete for two million dollars in prizes. The event concludes on Sunday.

This Gamers8 Esports and Music Festival tournament will be followed by a Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six tournament, which will see some of the world’s best teams compete for 1.2 million dollars in prizes between August 4 and 7.

After that, a PUBG Mobile tournament will be held between August 11 and 13 and August 18 and 20.

The Gamers8 Esports and Music Festival kicked off on July 14 with a Rocket League tournament that went on until July 17 before the Riyadh Masters, which ran from July 20 to 24.

Gamers8 offers gamers a unique experience, as it will feature a range of events and concerts held every weekend for two months.

Established in 2017, the Saudi Esports Federation aims to support and strengthen the local gaming community.

It has organized an array of national and international tournaments over the past four years, drawing massive local and foreign investments



Nvidia Ramps up AI Tech for Games, Robots and Autos

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card as he gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card as he gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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Nvidia Ramps up AI Tech for Games, Robots and Autos

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card as he gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang holds a new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card as he gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang made a rock star appearance at a packed arena late Monday, touting AI chips and software for robots, cars, video games and more.

After years of being on the sidelines at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, talk of computer chips was a hot ticket as people queued for hours to fill an arena to hear Huang talk AI.

"When you see application after application that is AI driven, at the core of it is that machine learning has changed how computing will be done," Jensen said during a one-man presentation on stage.

"There are so many things you can't do without AI."

Jensen's keynote came on the eve of the opening of the CES show floor, and on a day that Nvidia shares closed at a new record, giving the Silicon Valley company a market valuation of more than $3.6 trillion.

Nvidia's graphics unit processors (GPUs) for powering AI in datacenters have been snapped up by Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI and others racing to be leaders in the technology.

During a lengthy presentation in Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay resort, Huang introduced a GPU for ramping up AI capabilities in personal computers where Nvidia won the loyalty of gamers in the company's early days.

Nvidia touted the new GeForce RTX 50 series for desktop and laptop computers based on Blackwell chip architecture as its most advanced consumer GPUs.

"Blackwell, the engine of AI, has arrived for PC gamers, developers and creatives," Huang said.

PCs enhanced with RTX chips for AI capabilities will be available from an array of manufacturers including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Razer and Samsung, according to Nvidia.

An AI PC displayed during the presentation was priced at $1,299, built with the $549 RTX chip at the starting point of the new GPU line-up.

Along with rapid rendering of rich gameplay action, Nvidia AI technology will enable the creation of characters that perceive, plan and act like human players, according to Nvidia.

Such autonomous characters are being integrated into games including "PUBG: Battlegrounds", according to Nvidia.

Huang also introduced a family foundation models open to the world for advancing "physical AI" that enables robots to understand and engage in real-world tasks.

Nvidia expanded partnerships and technology for autonomous capabilities in cars as well, with Toyota joining its roster of partners.