TSMC admitted in mid-2023 that demand for its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) has exceeded its production capacity, and the company vowed to double capacity by the end of 2024. But while TSMC is building up its CoWoS capabilities, Nvidia would like to ship as many of its high-demand AI processors as possible — which is why it's tapping Intel to use its advanced packaging technology (in addition to TSMC's), according to a report from money.UDN.com, citing industrial sources. As with all unconfirmed reports, we'll have to take this with a grain of salt until the companies involved comment. The deal is purportedly for 5,000 wafers per month, and according to quick back-of-the-napkin math, that would equate to 300,000 of Nvidia's H100 chips (assuming perfect yield and that the contract is for H100) per month.
TSMC is projected to remain the main supplier, providing around 90% of Nvidia's advanced packaging capacity. But starting from Q2, Nvidia is also poised to use Intel's capacity for at least some of its products, the report claims. If this information is accurate, adding Intel's capacities will let Nvidia produce more GPUs for AI and HPC workloads, satisfying demand for its existing products quicker. There is a catch, however.
