Nvidia is now producing cutting edge AI chips with its latest Blackwell architecture in the US. The first American-made wafers destined for Blackwell tapeouts have come out of the TSMC factory in Arizona.

Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, held a keynote in front of the American TSMC foundry staff to commemorate the milestone, and signed a Blackwell wafer together with TSMC’s VP of operations Wang.

TSMC has invested heavily in its first chip factory on US soil, with $165 billion committed so far, and more on the way. The Arizona factory will still be able to cover only a fraction of the US company processor needs, but the fact that it is now able to craft the most advanced AI chips out there underscores its strategic importance.

The US is trying to establish a chip supply chain in America to achieve greater independence in the fields of AI data processing, and the first made-in-Arizona Blackwell wafers are a prime example that its new onshoring strategy is bearing fruit. According to Huang, “this is a historic moment for several reasons.”

It’s the very first time in recent American history that the single most important chip is being manufactured here in the United States by the most advanced fab, by TSMC, here in the United States. This is the vision of President Trump of reindustrialization — to bring back manufacturing to America, to create jobs, of course, but also, this is the single most vital manufacturing industry and the most important technology industry in the world.

TSMC sounds pretty proud of itself, too. It took it just a few years from breaking the Arizona foundry grounds to producing the most advanced AI chips there with the architecture that powers popular gaming cards like the Asus RTX 5070 Ti that is now discounted by 15% on Amazon. The US recently leaned on it to invest in Intel, but eventually did so itself, asking TSMC to nearly double its chip production investment in the US instead, if it wants to skirt import tariffs.

Besides TSMC, other major semiconductor names have announced deals with American companies to make AI chips on US soil. Tesla recently partnered with Samsung to make the future AI6 chips that will be used for autonomous driving and Optimus robots in its Texas foundry. Unlike TSMC’s Nvidia Blackwell production that is now being taped out in Arizona on a 4nm node, the Samsung AI chips for Tesla will be made in Texas with the next-gen 2nm production process.

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Daniel Zlatev – Senior Tech Writer – 1926 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

Wooed by tech since the industrial espionage of Apple computers and the times of pixelized Nintendos, Daniel went and opened a gaming club when personal computers and consoles were still an expensive rarity. Nowadays, fascination is not with specs and speed but rather the lifestyle that computers in our pocket, house, and car have shoehorned us in, from the infinite scroll and the privacy hazards to authenticating every bit and move of our existence.