NVIDIA May Cut TSMC Chip Orders Amid Mounting Pressure, Report Claims

NVIDIA may be slowing down its chip orders at TSMC, according to a new report from Taiwan’s Commercial Times. The outlet cites unnamed supply chain sources but doesn’t name a product, node, size, or timeline. Neither NVIDIA nor TSMC have commented so far, and the claims are single-sourced for now. The report frames this as NVIDIA being squeezed from inside and out. On the inside, there’s Jensen Huang’s November 8 email to staff, in which he apologized for an extramarital affair, and the board’s independent investigation into reports that he was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort. The board has said it has no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised.

The outside pressure mostly comes down to export controls. The report points to tighter export reviews and H200 chips reportedly stockpiled in Hong Kong, both of which it says raise the risk of NVIDIA scaling back orders. It also cites foreign media reports suggesting that some firms approved to handle H200 could be shell companies, which feeds concerns that chips might reach China through fronts like these or middlemen in other countries. The report presents that as a suspicion rather than a finding, and if cuts do happen, upstream suppliers such as TSMC and ASE are the most exposed.

If NVIDIA does give up wafer capacity, the report expects AMD and custom chip designers to snap it up. AMD’s data center revenue hit a record $8.5 billion last quarter, up 97% year-over-year, as Helios…