Nvidia said Monday it had started producing chips at factories in Arizona and would build supercomputers in Texas, bringing the manufacturing of the key technology behind generative AI to the US.
The news comes as tariffs announced by President Trump have spurred anxiety about the cost of importing technology and products historically manufactured overseas. Most of the tariffs announced this month have been put on hold after a major stock market decline, and the Trump administration exempted some electronics, including phones and computers, from certain tariffs over the weekend.
Read more: Buy or Wait Guide: How Tariffs Will Change Tech Prices and What to Do Now
Trump, posting on his own social media site Truth Social on Sunday, said his administration would "taking a look at" semiconductors and the electronics supply chain, suggesting more tariff changes ahead.
While most consumers aren't buying chips to train and run their own gen AI models, the prices of hardware will affect the ultimate costs of the services we consume. With AI increasingly being wedged into devices like smartphones and software like office tools, an increase in what it costs companies to make those products and services could have significant ripple effects.
Nvidia said its Blackwell chips were being produced at TSMC chip plants in Phoenix. The supercomputers, designed to be used in AI-focused data centers, would be built in Houston (in partnership with Foxconn) and Dallas (with Wistron). Nvidia expects manufacturing at the supercomputer plants to ramp up in the next year or so.
"The engines of the world's AI infrastructure are being built in the United States for the first time," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said 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."
Efforts to bring semiconductor manufacturing to the US have picked up speed in recent years since President Biden signed the CHIPS Act in 2022. That law provided $53 billion for chipmakers to move production to the states.