NVIDIA has taken a big step toward strengthening its domestic chip manufacturing, revealing the first Blackwell wafer made in the United States. The hardware company assembled the wafer, which is the base material for NVIDIA’s AI chips, at TSMC’s semiconductor manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona.
NVIDIA unveiled its Blackwell platform last year, aiming to revolutionize the AI industry with tech giants like Amazon, Google, OpenAI and others already committed to adopting the next-generation architecture. NVIDIA said the latest platform is more powerful and results in 25 times less cost and power consumption compared to its predecessor. Now that Blackwell wafers can be manufactured in the TSMC factory, NVIDIA can better protect itself from the ever-changing pricing situation and geopolitical tensions.
“This is the very first time in recent American history that the most important chip is made here in the United States by the most advanced factory, by TSMC, here in the United States,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, during the celebration event.
With NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture ready for the volume production stage, the company is still working to expand its manufacturing footprint in the United States. Earlier this year, NVIDIA announced plans to invest half a trillion dollars in building AI infrastructure in the United States through partnerships with TSMC, Foxconn and other companies.
