TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his firm's graphics processing units (GPUs) could be made “somewhere else” if China attacks Taiwan.

During the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference on Sept. 11, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon asked about the reliability of Nvidia's supply of GPUs given its dependence on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and the threat of a Chinese invasion. Huang responded, “If TSMC were compromised, supply would continue. Although, it wouldn't be as good,” reported Business Insider. 

Huang said that his firm possesses “enough intellectual property” that if the need arose to transfer production from one plant to another “we have the ability to do it.” Huang cautioned that the process technology and outperformance may not be equivalent to TSMC, “but we will be able to provide the supply.” 

“In the event anything were to happen,” the Nvidia CEO said, “we should be able to pick up and fab it somewhere else.” Nevertheless, Huang emphasized that TSMC is the best semiconductor maker in the world by an “incredible margin.”

Lin Wei-chih (林偉智), executive vice president of Witology Markettrend Research Institute, told China Times that currently, TSMC's wafer foundry technology cannot be replaced. For integrated circuit (IC) design companies such as Nvidia and AMD, it is not desirable to concentrate production capacity in a single company.

Lin said if companies want to diversify their orders, the first choice is Samsung, followed by Intel.

Lin explained that although Samsung and Intel cannot match TSMC's yield rates in advanced manufacturing processes, large-scale production can make up for lower yields. However, the die size of a GPU is quite large, which would significantly drive up costs, said Lin.

For example, with a yield of 50%, if a single wafer is cut into four dies, only two would be usable. In addition, delivery times would be delayed. 

In comparison, the likelihood of diversifying orders for advanced packaging is higher. Major testing and packaging companies like Amkor Technology might have an opportunity to take on orders, or TSMC might outsource this work themselves.