Just three days ago, NVIDIA and TSMC celebrated the production of the first "Blackwell" GPU at TSMC's Fab 21 complex in Phoenix, Arizona. This marked a significant milestone for both companies, as it signifies the creation of the world's most powerful silicon on U.S. soil. However, the production phase is only part of the story, as the chip benefits not only from an advanced node but also from TSMC's advanced packaging systems. Specifically, the Blackwell family of GPUs utilizes TSMC's Chip on Wafer on Substrate (CoWoS) packaging system.

For CoWoS access, TSMC must send these chips back to the Taiwanese facilities overseas and house the raw die in a CoWoS-S configuration with silicon interposer. This establishes a supply chain dependency on Taiwanese facilities, which remain essential for completing the production of advanced silicon. As a result, the chip isn't entirely manufactured on American soil, indicating that some issues still need to be resolved. TSMC produces NVIDIA's Blackwell chips using a custom 4N 4 nm class node specifically designed for NVIDIA. This die is paired with eight stacks of HBM3E, all housed within a CoWoS-S package.