Nvidia says it has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test AI chips in Arizona and Texas as part of an effort to move a portion of production to the U.S.
The chipmaker says that Nvidia Blackwell chips have started production at TSMC’s chip plants in Phoenix, Arizona, and that Nvidia is building “supercomputer” manufacturing plants in Texas, with Foxconn in Houston and with Wistron in Dallas. In Arizona, Nvidia is partnering with Amkor and SPIL for packaging and testing operations, the company added.
Mass production at the Arizona and Texas plants is expected to ramp up in the next 12-15 months, according to Nvidia. Within the next four years, the company aims to produce up to half a trillion dollars of AI infrastructure in the U.S. and create “hundreds of thousands” of jobs.
“The engines of the world’s AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time,” said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in a statement. “Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain, and boosts our resiliency.”
The announcement comes days after Nvidia reportedly narrowly avoided export controls on its H20 chips. According to NPR, the H20, the most advanced Nvidia-produced AI chip that can still be exported from the U.S. to China, was spared thanks to a promise from Huang to the Trump administration to invest in new AI data centers in the U.S.
Many AI companies besides Nvidia have leaned into Trump’s “America-first” approach to AI in bids to curry favor with the administration. OpenAI teamed up with SoftBank and Oracle for a $500 billion U.S. data center initiative dubbed the Stargate Project in January. Microsoft pledged $80 billion to build AI data centers in its 2025 fiscal year, with 50% of that earmarked for the U.S.
Trump has strong-armed certain partners to get his desired outcome. He reportedly told Taiwanese semiconductor company TSMC that it would have to pay a tax up to 100% if the company didn’t build new chip factories in the U.S.
The Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up the domestic chipmaking industry face immense challenges. Retaliatory tariffs and trade restrictions from China threaten the supply of necessary raw materials to build chips in the U.S., and there’s a severe shortage of skilled frontline workers to build chips.
This is a breaking story, check back for updates.
