Nvidia now produces cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips featuring its latest Blackwell architecture in the United States. The first U.S.-made pads for Blackwell bands rolled out of the TSMC factory in Arizona.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, held a conference in front of US staff at TSMC Foundry to commemorate the milestone, and signed a Blackwell plaque with TSMC Vice President of Operations Mr. Wang.
TSMC has invested heavily in its first chip manufacturing plant on U.S. soil, with $165 billion committed so far, and more on the way. The Arizona factory will still only be able to cover a fraction of the processor needs of American companies, but the fact that it is now able to manufacture the most advanced AI chips underlines its strategic importance.
The United States is trying to establish a chip supply chain in America in order to gain greater independence in the field of AI data processing, and the first Blackwell wafers manufactured in Arizona are a prime example of its new offshoring strategy paying off. According to Mr. Huang,“This is a historic moment for several reasons“
This is the very first time in recent US history that the most important chip is manufactured here in the United States by the most advanced factory, TSMC. This is President Trump’s vision for reindustrialization – bringing manufacturing back to America, to create jobs, of course, but also because it is the most vital manufacturing industry and the most important technology industry in the world.
TSMC also seems very proud of itself. It only took a few years to go from the Arizona foundry to producing the most advanced artificial intelligence chips, with the architecture that powers the most popular gaming cards such as the Asus RTX 5070 Ti which is currently 15% off at Amazon. The U.S. recently leaned on the company to invest in Intel, but ended up doing it itself, asking TSMC to nearly double its investment in U.S. chip production if it wants to avoid import tariffs.
In addition to TSMC, other big semiconductor names have announced agreements with American companies to manufacture AI chips on American soil. Tesla recently partnered with Samsung to manufacture the future AI6 chip which will be used for autonomous driving and Optimus in its Texas foundry. Unlike TSMC’s production of Nvidia Blackwell, which currently takes place in Arizona on a 4nm node, Samsung’s AI chips for Tesla will be manufactured in Texas with the next generation 2nm production process.
