TSMC is in talks with Nvidia Corp to make the Nvidia artificial intelligence Blackwell chips at its new factory in Arizona.
According to a recent report by Reuters, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd is ready to begin production at the Arizona facility early next year. The information was revealed by three sources who asked not to be identified as these discussions are confidential.
US plants are part of efforts to limit supply chain disruption
Introduced in March, Nvidia’s Blackwell chips have been manufactured in TSMC plants in Taiwan so far. Potential clients for these highly demanded chips are companies working in generative AI and accelerated computing.
Nvidia claims these Blackwell chips work 30 times faster than earlier models at tasks like providing answers for a chatbot. The company announced that it fixed design flaws in October.
If finalized, the deal will make Nvidia one of the major customers of TSMC’s Arizona plant, which will begin large-scale production next year. Neither has commented on the update.
Recently, the U.S. has added more restrictions to limit China from accessing advanced tech used for semiconductor manufacturing on national security grounds. On the other hand, China has retaliated as well by limiting exports of key materials used in the production of chips.
TSMC’s efforts to set up manufacturing plants inside the U.S. are part of the chip maker’s strategies to minimize single-region dependency. The semiconductor giant is expanding operations in Arizona in part to ensure a more resilient supply chain for its clients, which also includes Nvidia.
Apple and AMD are also customers of TSMC’s Arizona plant
Apple and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are among the clients of the Taiwanese chipmaker’s Arizona plant as per two sources. Both Apple and AMD did not comment on the matter as well.
While the initial stages of the manufacturing of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips will take place in TSMC’s Arizona plant, the final packaging needs to happen back in Taiwan.
This is because the plant in Arizona does not have the advanced chip packaging technology known as chip on wafer on substrate (CoWoS) necessary to make Blackwell chips. All of TSMC CoW’s operations so far are in Taiwan.
The world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, is pouring billions into the U.S. with three plants planned in Phoenix. The U.S. government is supporting these projects with large subsidies as part of a larger effort to bring more semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.
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