NVIDIA begins AI chip production in the U.S.…invests $1 billion in Nokia [Stocks+]

Nokia to receive $1 billion investment…"The U.S. must lead communications technology"

Expanding quantum computing cooperation…"Combining with AI supercomputers"

U.S. semiconductor company NVIDIA has begun full-scale production of its latest artificial intelligence (AI) chip, 'Blackwell', at TSMC's plant in Arizona.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's chief executive officer (CEO), said this on the 28th (local time) at the Graphics Technology Conference (GTC) held in Washington D.C. In his keynote, Huang said, "Blackwell GPUs are now being produced at full scale at the Arizona plant," adding, "This is the result of President Donald Trump's request nine months ago to 'bring manufacturing back to the United States.'"

He added, "There was a request from the president to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. for national security, for jobs, and for one pillar of the economy."

NVIDIA's main GPU production has long depended on TSMC's factories in Taiwan. However, earlier this month NVIDIA and TSMC announced that the first Blackwell wafers were produced at the Phoenix plant in Arizona.

A wafer is the base material on which semiconductor circuits are etched. NVIDIA plans to carry out assembly of Blackwell-based systems in the U.S. in the future.

The choice of Washington as the venue for this conference was also symbolic. Huang said, "It was an opportunity to emphasize to policymakers that NVIDIA is at the core of the U.S. technology ecosystem," and added, "We moved GTC to Washington so the president could attend." President Trump is currently on a tour of Asia, but according to Reuters, he is scheduled to meet with CEO Huang on the 29th.

Huang announced that NVIDIA will pursue cooperation with Finland's Nokia in the 5G and 6G communications equipment fields. NVIDIA will invest $1 billion in Nokia and jointly develop AI-based base station equipment. He said, "Currently, global communications networks are built on foreign technology," stressing, "They must be rebuilt on American technology."

Nokia plans to equip next-generation base stations with NVIDIA's new product called 'ARC'. ARC is a system that combines NVIDIA's 'Grace' GPU, Blackwell GPU, and networking components. Through next-generation 6G networks, it will enable new services such as robot control and precise weather forecasting.

NVIDIA took a major hit in the Chinese market due to U.S. export restriction measures. In April this year, the U.S. government notified that separate permission would be required for NVIDIA's H20 chips to be exported to China, and this is estimated to have resulted in about $10.5 billion in lost sales. In July, CEO Huang met President Trump in person and sought to persuade him that exports of NVIDIA chips to China were necessary even for U.S. interests, but the U.S. government set as a condition for approval that 15% of China sales be paid to the government.

Huang recently said at a meeting, "NVIDIA is currently 100% withdrawn from the Chinese market," and added, "New China-only products based on Blackwell have not yet been disclosed."

Nevertheless, he emphasized, "NVIDIA is building America's AI infrastructure and will lead the future of innovation."

NVIDIA also announced a new technology in the quantum computing field called 'NVQ Link'. This technology connects quantum chips to NVIDIA GPUs to correct errors and improve performance. Seventeen quantum computing startups will develop hardware compatible with NVQ Link. NVIDIA also announced plans to build seven new supercomputers in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy.

New York=Park Shin-young, correspondent nyusos@hankyung.com