Australian gaming-focused and Perth-based tech stock Pentanet (ASX:5GG) has expanded on its eye-grabbing announcement from late last week.
That announcement was eye-grabbing for one reason: it mentioned NVIDIA.
For absolute clarity, Pentanet’s exposure to NVIDIA isn’t really to do with the part of NVIDIA that has got the whole world excited – microchips.
NVIDIA started out as a video game graphics hardware player and it still operates that division. It is this division to which Pentanet’s Tuesday announcement relates.
Ultimately, Pentanet has upgraded its internal hardware and software to allow it access to a global network NVIDIA runs called the “Graphics Delivery Network” (GDN).
The tech giant describes the GDN as a service that “deliver seamless access to high-fidelity, 3D interactive experiences.”
“By offloading heavy compute tasks to GDN, businesses can easily bring websites to life in 3D,” NVIDIA senior product manager Candice Mudrick said.
“[This can engage] customers with interactive experiences like product configurators, metaverse collaboration spaces, and virtual try-on solutions.”
Product configuration, ‘metaverse spaces’ and ‘virtual try-on’ all point towards one thing: the video game world. But Pentanet says the point of harmonising with the GDN is to look beyond gaming.
To be fair, ‘virtual try-on’ does sound like it could have retail e-commerce applications.
“Joining the NVIDIA global Graphics Delivery Network will open a pathway to new commercial opportunities beyond gaming,” Pentanet chief Stephen Cornish said.
Despite the GDN not being part of NVIDIA’s real value proposition of late – the production of hardware that enables other companies to train large language model generative AI algorithms – Pentanet shares were nonetheless up 13.42% to 9.3cps on Tuesday morning.
The recent injection of investor enthusiasm among Pentanet shareholders is more than likely quite welcome to any long-time holders of the stock.
The company listed in early 2021 – firmly a COVID era player – near 60c, quickly rose to a peak above $1.00/sh, but was back to 60c by July.
After reaching 70c again in September of 2021, Pentanet shares have failed to climb back above 70c since. In fact, they’ve failed to hold onto much value at all.
Today, the shares are worth less than 10c.
5GG last traded at 9.3c.