Nvidia Lines Up Six Partners for 2.5x Substrate, 15x Optics Build

Nvidia posted a list of six supplier commitments this week, each attached to a capacity multiple. In the release, the company says substrate agreements with IBIDEN, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Unimicron Technology Corporation will 'in aggregate, drive a 2.5x increase in capacity over the next three years.' Amkor plans to 'increase its advanced packaging capacity by more than 300% by the end of 2028.' SPIL is targeting a 15x expansion of optical-engine capacity for co-packaged optics by mid-2027, 'with aims for another doubling by the end of 2028.' Total testing capacity is set to double from 2026 to 2027.

Behind the multiples sit two cash commitments. KYEC gets a $1.1 billion capacity reservation advance from Nvidia to build new U.S. testing facilities, with production targeted for April 2027. IBIDEN gets a multibillion-dollar advance to triple its Ono Plant's substrate capacity by Q1 2028.

'We are in the midst of the largest infrastructure buildout in human history,' CEO Jensen Huang stated. 'Demand is extraordinary. Capacity is the constraint.'

The geography is deliberate: substrates from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; advanced packaging in South Korea; testing in Singapore (February 2027) and the United States; co-packaged optics out of Taiwan. Unimicron's KF substrate line ramps in Q2 2027 and reaches full capacity by mid-2028. Samsung Electro-Mechanics is expanding in Sejong and Busan.

The release names the capacity multiples and two of the dollar figures, and stops there. It does not disclose Nvidia's total advance-payment exposure across the six partners, nor the per-GPU volume these ramps are sized against. The announcement sits a day behind yesterday's DSX POD rack-scale launch on our chips tracker; the inputs and outputs of the Vera Rubin ramp, a day apart.