Spotlight: SLB and NVIDIA Collaborate on Generative AI Solutions for Energy

Global energy technology company SLB has announced the next milestone in its long-standing collaboration with NVIDIA to develop and scale generative AI solutions for the energy industry.

The collaboration accelerates the development and deployment of energy industry-specific generative AI foundation models across SLB global platforms, including its Delfi digital platform and new Lumi data and AI platform. This work leverages NVIDIA NeMo, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, to develop custom generative AI that can be run in the data center, in any cloud, or at the edge. 

NVIDIA and SLB are working together to build and optimize generative AI models for the specific needs and requirements of the data-intensive energy industry, including field planning, development, production operations, and data management. This will help unlock the full potential of generative AI for energy domain experts―including researchers, scientists, engineers, and IT teams―enabling them to interact with complex technical processes in new ways to drive higher value and lower carbon outcomes across the energy value chain. 

Extending more than 15 years of collaboration in AI and HPC

SLB and NVIDIA first collaborated in 2008 with the innovative use of NVIDIA GPUs for subsurface imaging and reservoir simulation. The companies have worked closely over the years to optimize every generation of SLB high-performance compute technologies, available on its Delfi platform with the latest NVIDIA accelerated computing platform. 

Additionally, SLB and NVIDIA have worked with Dell Technologies to deliver both HPC and AI solutions to energy customers. These include solutions for SLB Intersect, Omega, and Delfi.  

Building seismic foundation models and generative AI copilots

Energy companies are turning to generative AI for current and future energy systems, improving the balance of energy production with decarbonization goals. Industry-specific generative AI solutions help provide new insights from enterprise data to quickly solve complex challenges.

NVIDIA accelerated computing and software provide a full-stack platform for developing and deploying generative AI capabilities. SLB recognized the value of leveraging NVIDIA NIM microservices to optimize performance and efficiency for enterprise-scale generative AI deployments. The company is giving its customers seamless access to NeMo for use in their technical workflows to improve performance, optimize processes, and drive innovation.

As recently showcased at SLB Digital Forum 2024, SLB is currently developing:

A seismic vision transformer foundation model trained from scratch, including two specializations for seismic interpretation tasks, to accelerate seismic data processing and enhance productivity for researchers and scientists in exploration geophysics. A coding copilot inferencing against a fine-tuned large language model (LLM) trained on SLB internal data to vastly improve customer experience of software tools. 

SLB can leverage the copilot across its software tools to facilitate ease of use for its reservoir engineers and geoscientists. Additionally, including generative AI accelerates decision making as several AI models can run concurrently, giving business decision makers accurate, real-time insights. 

Conclusion

With generative AI, energy companies can improve the exploration, production, and delivery of energy resources with sustainable operations. SLB is building custom generative AI models, using NVIDIA NeMo and NIM, to help scientists and engineers in the energy industry leverage enterprise data and produce intelligence for subsurface understanding. This AI factory enables breakthroughs in customer engagement, operational efficiency, and revenue growth.

Learn more about the SLB and NVIDIA collaboration and AI and HPC for subsurface operations.