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Nvidia may see at least part of its Blackwell AI GPUs made in Arizona at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp's first Arizona plant, which is slated to begin production for clients in 2025.
Because the Blackwell design uses an improved version of TSMC's 4-nanometer process and TSMC already makes other chips for Nvidia, it's less of a question as to who might produce the chips, but rather where they will be made. Nvidia and TSMC have been discussing the Arizona deal, and while not yet finalized, TSMC is already preparing to start production on the chips in the US. That's according to a report from Reuters published on Thursday, citing two anonymous sources. Nvidia declined to comment on the report.
TSMC won't be able to produce the entire Blackwell GPU in the US, however. The chips will have to be sent to Taiwan for the packaging process because the Arizona location won't have TSMC's "chip wafer on substrate," or CoWoS, which the chips require, according to the report.
Apple and AMD will also be customers at the new TSMC Arizona plant, which is located in the northwest Phoenix area between Anthem and Deer Valley. TSMC's website states that this first Arizona plant will open in the "first half" of 2025. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the construction site when work began back in 2022 and spoke during an event there celebrating the start of construction.
TSMC has two more plants under construction in the state that are being supported by $6.6 billion in grants and $5 billion in loans from Biden's Chips Act. The second Arizona plant is scheduled to open in 2028, and the third is expected to open by 2030.
Nvidia's Blackwell product was designed for AI processing needs. The company claims it can be 30 times faster at completing AI-related tasks. The Blackwell launch has faced some delays this year due to a design issue and then an issue with the Blackwell server racks, but both have reportedly since been resolved.
PCMag has reached out to TSMC for comment.