Supply chain challenges risk delaying Nvidia’s Rubin GPUs

Nvidia’s next-gen Rubin GPUs may end up shipping later and in smaller volumes than anticipated due to supply chain challenges, TrendForce warned on Wednesday.

The industry watchers now expect Rubin to account for 22 percent of Nvidia’s high-end GPU shipments in 2026, down from their previous forecast, which had pinned the mix at 29 percent.

TrendForce cited the time required to validate the newer HBM4 memory used by the chips, challenges with the migration to Nvidia’s faster ConnectX-9 NICs, the system’s higher overall power consumption, and the more advanced liquid cooling requirements as contributing to the delays.

Shipments of Nvidia’s Hopper GPUs, including H200s bound for the Chinese market, are also expected to be lower than initially forecast due to ongoing geopolitical issues between the US and China.

In December, the Trump administration said it would allow exceptions to earlier US export rules governing sales of high-end AI accelerators to China, with formal US approval following in January. The decision meant Nvidia could sell its older, but still potent H200 accelerators to Chinese customers for the first time. In exchange, Nvidia would just…