Nvidia teams up with TSMC in silicon photonics development

Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) U.S.-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) have partnered with each other in silicon photonics development, according to Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of the American AI giant.

Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world's largest contract chipmaker in silicon photonics but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results anytime soon and both sides still needed several years to achieve concrete outcomes.

To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and Taiwan-based IC packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology Holding Co. have organized the Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance (SiPhIA), which is comprised of more than 30 Taiwanese companies.

Silicon photonics is known as the applications of photonic systems using silicon as a medium for optical transmission, which has some promising features, such as low power consumption, extensive transmission distance, and lower costs.

At a time when AI applications are booming, finding ways to cut energy consumption has become a focus.

Huang expressed gratitude to all of TSMC's employees for their support for Nvidia which he said has enabled his company to make a significant improvement in production as AI applications are in great demand.

In addition to TSMC, Huang also visited several of Nvidia's business partners in Taiwan.

During the visits, Huang said global demand for Nvidia's advanced Grace and Blackwell graphics processing units (GPUs) was strong so he also thanked these Taiwanese partners for providing about 45 factories to help his company.

He named Nvidia's partners in expressing his gratitude, including AI server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Quanta Computer Inc. and Wistron Corp., cloud-enabled services provider Wiwynn Corp., AI graphics card vendor Giga-Byte Technology Co., IC packaging and testing services provider, Siliconware Precision Industries Co. (SPIL), and PC component maker Cooler Master Co.

Huang said Nvidia has created GPUs and AI applications and laid a new foundation for future computer development, and he believed the AI industry will become the mainstream of the global industrial development as AI will allow machines to learn 24 hours a day to help human beings.

He added that now is just a beginning of the AI era, and he expected several trillion U.S. dollars worth of business opportunities to come.

He added that Nvidia has to grow rapidly to meet the trend but without these Taiwanese partners, which are "working around the clock," it was impossible for his company to make it.

On Thursday, Huang attended the opening ceremony of a new plant of SPIL in Taichung Tanzi Technology Industrial Park, in central Taiwan.

Huang said SPIL, a wholly owned subsidiary of the world's largest IC packaging and testing services provider ASE Technology, was Nvidia's important long-term back-end IC packaging and testing partner in AI-related GPUs and robot development.

He said Nvidia's cooperation scale with SPIL has grown 10 fold from a decade ago, and risen 200 percent from 2024 as both sides have forged close ties in their 27-year cooperation in high-end IC packaging and testing development, referring to 3D Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) IC packaging services used in AI chip manufacturing.

While Nvidia is shifting from single-die CoWoS technology (CoWoS-S) to more sophisticated duel-die CoWoS technology (CoWoS-L) in Blackwell CPU production, his company will continue to use CoWoS-S in Hopper GPU manufacturing, Huang said.

Huang added that he expected orders from his company for CoWoS services as a whole will not be cut but will increase significantly this year.

Industrial sources said Huang's visit to SPIL was aimed at securing CoWoS production. As its CoWoS services have secured certification, SPIL is expected to raise production gradually starting from the second quarter of this year, the sources added.

Huang said he is expected to meet with representatives of other Taiwanese suppliers on Saturday but he did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Huang said Nvidia was still looking for a location in Taiwan to build its headquarters outside the United States as his company was growing and needed a larger venue for its operations.