Nvidia plans to make AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S.
Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia said Monday that it will start producing AI supercomputers entirely in the United States, as the semiconductor sector braces for potential tariffs.
Nvidia has commissioned 1 million square feet of manufacturing space to test and produce its Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas, the graphics chipmaker said in a blog post. It will partner with contract electronics giant Foxconn on one factory in Houston and with Wistron, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, on another in Dallas. Both are expected to ramp up to mass production in the next 12 to 15 months, Nvidia said.
“The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time,” said Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang.
The White House claimed credit for the move: “It’s the Trump Effect in action,” it said in a statement.
The announcement comes as the semiconductor industry has been embroiled in a trade war that is expected to raise the cost of many electronics, smartphones and the construction of data centers needed to develop chatbots like ChatGPT.
After announcing steep tariffs on Chinese and Taiwanese imports earlier this month, President Donald Trump on Friday unexpectedly exempted computers, smartphones and powerful semiconductors called graphics processing units from the import levies. Much of Nvidia’s GPUs are manufactured in Taiwan.
But on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said tariffs for semiconductors, smartphones and laptops are still in the works. And Trump said the entire electronics supply chain would be subject to a tariff investigation.
Nvidia shares were up 0.3% Monday afternoon, but have fallen about 9 % in the last month.
Nvidia said it plans to produce up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in the U.S. in the next four years, working with Foxconn, Wistron and other companies.
Earlier this year, Apple said it would spend $500 billion over the next four years in the U.S. on a new factory and AI efforts, though much of that investment had been previously planned.