Nvidia announced plans on Oct. 21 to expand its global manufacturing capacity with six supply chain partners, covering substrates, advanced packaging, chip testing and optical engines. The headline target, unveiled at GTC Berlin, is a 2.5x increase in substrate capacity over the next three years.
The partners are Amkor Technology, IBIDEN, King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) and Unimicron Technology. Nvidia said the program brings in new suppliers as well as expanding existing ones, with the stated goal of adding resiliency and redundancy to the supply chain behind its AI factory platform.
Substrates get the most attention. Nvidia has given IBIDEN a multibillion-dollar capacity reservation advance for its Ono Plant in Japan, which is targeting three times its current output. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is joining Nvidia's supply chain with upgrades and new factories in Sejong and Busan, South Korea, while Unimicron is expanding KF substrate capacity in Taiwan starting in the second quarter of 2027, reaching full capacity by mid-2028.
Key facts
- 01Nvidia announced the supply chain expansion at GTC Berlin on Oct. 21, 2026, with six manufacturing partners.
- 02Nvidia plans a 2.5x increase in substrate capacity over three years.
- 03KYEC is receiving a $1.1 billion capacity reservation advance for new US testing facilities, targeting volume production in April 2027.
- 04Amkor plans more than a 300% increase in interposer wafer capacity in South Korea by the end of 2028.
- 05SPIL is targeting a 15x increase in optical-engine capacity in Taiwan by mid-2027.
On advanced packaging, Amkor plans to increase its interposer wafer capacity in South Korea by more than 300% by the end of 2028.
Testing is the second big bet. Nvidia expects its total semiconductor testing capacity to double from 2026 to 2027. KYEC is receiving a $1.1 billion capacity reservation advance from Nvidia to build new testing facilities in the United States, with high-volume production targeted for April 2027. Expanded testing capacity in Singapore is expected to reach high-volume production in February 2027.
The largest multiplier is in optics. SPIL is targeting a 15x increase in co-packaged optical-engine capacity in Taiwan by mid-2027, followed by another doubling by the end of 2028.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang framed the expansion as a response to demand that is outrunning what suppliers can currently produce.
“We are in the midst of the largest infrastructure buildout in human history.”— Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia
The announcement landed the same day as Huang's GTC Berlin keynote, where he told roughly 3,000 attendees at the Tempodrom that Europe's AI economy is accelerating and promoted Nvidia's prefabricated Vera Rubin data center pods. Huang said Nvidia invested $10 billion in European startups and partners over the past year.
In Nvidia's release, Huang summed up the case for the supplier deals in two lines: "Demand is extraordinary," and "Capacity is the constraint."
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