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Nvidia to spend hundreds of billions on US supply chain over next 4 years, says chief

Jensen Huang’s chip pledge follows onshoring plans by other tech companies as Donald Trump’s trade policies ripple through industry

Nvidia will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on chips and other electronics manufactured in the US over the next four years, its chief executive has said, as the company tilts its supply chain back from Asia in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

The huge spending projection from the world’s most valuable semiconductor group follows multibillion-dollar US investment plans announced by other technology companies including Apple, as the impact of Trump’s “America First” trade policies ripples through the global economy.

“Overall, we will procure, over the course of the next four years, probably half a trillion dollars worth of electronics in total,” Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive and co-founder, told the Financial Times. “And I think we can easily see ourselves manufacturing several hundred billion of it here in the US.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Huang said the leading artificial intelligence chipmaker was now able to manufacture its latest systems in the US through suppliers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Foxconn, and that he saw a growing competitive threat from Huawei in China.

This week, at Nvidia’s annual developers’ conference, Huang unveiled the next generation of its AI chip, Vera Rubin, outlining his plan to build clusters of millions of interconnected chips in giant data centres that will require a vast power supply.

Huang said he believed the Trump administration could accelerate the development of America’s AI industry. “Having the support of an administration who cares about the success of this industry and not allowing energy to be an obstacle is a phenomenal result for AI in the US,” he said.

This month, TSMC announced a $100bn investment in chip manufacturing facilities in Arizona, which came in addition to a $65bn investment agreed under the Biden administration.

Nvidia’s latest Blackwell systems are now being produced in the US, said Huang. “TSMC investing in the US provides for a substantial step up in our supply chain resilience.”

In recent years, America’s biggest technology companies, including Nvidia and Apple, have become overwhelmingly reliant on TSMC’s cutting-edge chipmaking facilities in Taiwan.

That dependency has been clouded by the growing threat of aggression by China — which claims Taiwan as part of its territory — as well as the Trump administration’s threats of tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors. Taiwan also faces an ever-present risk of earthquakes.

“The most important thing is to be prepared,” said Huang. “At this point, we know that we can manufacture in the US, we have a sufficiently diversified supply chain.” If any disaster were to threaten production in Taiwan, he said, “it will be uncomfortable but it should be OK”.

The US has clamped down on exports of Nvidia’s market-leading chips that are used to train and run the most advanced AI models, with the industry decrying a Biden-era set of more expansive export controls scheduled to come into force in May.

At the same time, Chinese chipmakers have been prevented from buying advanced chipmaking equipment such as ASML’s lithography machines. 

But while Nvidia still makes billions of dollars in revenue from China, it has faced resurgent competition from Huawei, whose Ascend AI chips have made advances recently.

“Huawei is the single most formidable technology company in China,” said Huang. “They have conquered every market they’ve engaged.” US-led efforts to constrain the Chinese tech conglomerate have been “done poorly” given Huawei’s continued success.

“I think that their presence in AI is growing every single year,” he said. “We can’t assume that they are not going to be a factor.”

Intel, the only US company that can in theory manufacture leading-edge chips similar to Nvidia’s, has faced serious challenges with its foundry business. A leadership vacuum at Intel was resolved last week when Lip-Bu Tan was named as chief executive. 

Huang denied reports that Nvidia was involved in discussions to form a consortium with the likes of TSMC to invest in Intel and stopped short of committing to using its US chipmaking services as part of that onshoring.

“We evaluate their foundry technology on a regular basis, and we are ongoing in doing that,” he said, adding that Nvidia was also looking at Intel’s chip packaging services. “We look for opportunities to be a customer of theirs.”

“I have every confidence that Intel has the ability to do it,” said Huang, referring to Intel’s ability to be competitive in advanced chip technologies.

He added that the “success and welfare of Intel” was important. “But it takes a while to convince yourself and each other that a new supply chain ought to get built up.”

Federal Reserve cuts US growth forecast as Trump’s policies weigh on outlook

Central bank also lifts inflation projection as chair Jay Powell warns of tariff impact

The Federal Reserve has slashed its US growth forecast and lifted its inflation outlook, underscoring concerns that Donald Trump’s tariffs will knock the world’s biggest economy.

The Fed’s latest projections showed officials expected GDP to expand by 1.7 per cent this year, with prices forecast to rise by 2.7 per cent. Policymakers kept the central bank’s main interest rate on hold at the end of a two-day meeting on Wednesday.

Fed chair Jay Powell acknowledged to reporters after the meeting that Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on US trading partners had affected the central bank’s outlook for inflation and the economy.

“Clearly some of it, a good part of it”, is related to the impact of the president’s tariffs, Powell said, adding that such measures “tend to bring growth down and push inflation up”. He also said the Fed did “not need to be in a hurry” to shift rates given “unusually elevated” uncertainty.

Progress on inflation was “probably delayed for the time being”, Powell added. The Fed has been battling to push inflation back to its 2 per cent goal and halt the most severe bout of price pressures in decades.

In a post on his Truth Social platform late on Wednesday, Trump renewed his pressure on the central bank, calling for the Fed to reduce borrowing costs to offset new tariffs he plans to unveil next month.

“The Fed would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as US Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy,” the president wrote. “Do the right thing.”

The Fed also announced it was slowing down the pace of its quantitative tightening programme, lowering the amount of US Treasury debt it allows to roll off its balance sheet each month from $25bn to $5bn beginning in April.

US equities hit daily highs following the Fed decision, with the S&P 500 rising 1.1 per cent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.4 per cent.

US government debt also rallied, pushing the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield down 0.04 percentage points to 4.25 per cent.

Ed Al-Hussainy at Columbia Threadneedle Investments said: “The good news for risk is that the Fed expects higher inflation but not high enough to change their pace of rate cuts.”

The new projections marked a significant shift from December, when officials on the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank’s policy-setting panel, forecast 2.1 per cent growth for 2025 and estimated the closely watched personal consumption expenditures inflation gauge would end the year at 2.5 per cent.

The meeting came at a crucial time for the US economy as Trump has pledged deep reductions to federal spending and broad tax cuts. He has also imposed steep new tariffs on imports, sparking a global trade war.

Surveys have shown US consumers and businesses are fretting over the levies, which have depressed demand and increased price pressures.

The Fed’s new forecasts “signalled essentially that we are in a stagflation economy, with lower growth and higher inflation”, said Torsten Slok, chief economist at investment group Apollo.

“On the one hand, stagflation is a very complex challenge for the Fed. Should they listen to growth, meaning they should cut rates, or should they listen to higher inflation, meaning they should be hiking rates?”

An FOMC statement on Wednesday, made after US rate-setters maintained the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate between 4.25 per cent and 4.5 per cent, said: “Uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased.”

The latest so-called dot plot projections show Fed officials broadly expect one or two more quarter-point rate cuts this year — the same as in December — after lowering rates by a percentage point in 2024. However, four FOMC members now expect no cuts at all this year, against one in December.

Investors are expecting two to three quarter-point cuts by the end of 2025.

Fed governor Christopher Waller voted against the decision to slow quantitative tightening, saying the current decline of $25bn a month remained appropriate.

All of the voting FOMC members backed the decision to keep rates on hold.

Authorities increase subsidies for exploration and mining to shore up high-tech supply chain

China is boosting state support for domestic minerals exploration as policymakers increase efforts to achieve President Xi Jinping’s ambition for resource self-sufficiency amid intensifying competition with the US.

Over the past year, at least half of China’s 34 provincial-level governments, including those of top resource-producing regions such as Xinjiang, have announced increased subsidies or expanded access for mineral exploration, according to a Financial Times analysis of official announcements.

The funding boost comes as control over the world’s strategic minerals has emerged as a flashpoint between the US and China, as the superpowers compete over the resources needed for advanced technologies such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, robotics and missiles.

“A series of major breakthroughs in mineral exploration have been achieved, significantly enhancing the ability to ensure the safety of important industrial chains and supply chains and to respond to external environmental uncertainties,” Xiong Zili, director of the natural resources ministry’s department of geological exploration and management, told reporters this year.

He added that the new mineral exploration plan was closely focused on boosting domestic energy resources and “strategic” minerals

China is the world’s biggest producer of 30 of 44 critical minerals tracked by the US Geological Survey. 

In an effort to loosen Beijing’s dominance over the sector, US President Donald Trump has prioritised domestic mining since his return to the White House in January, as well as access to critical minerals abroad, including in Greenland, Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Xi has focused on China’s self-reliance in science and technology since becoming leader of the ruling Chinese Communist party in 2012.

That drive has become more imperative amid escalating tensions with the US, and Xi has turned to shoring up supply chains and prioritising advanced manufacturing and emerging high tech.

Beijing’s mineral supply chains are a critical point of geopolitical leverage in its trade and tech war with the US. The government has devoted more than Rmb100bn ($13.8bn) to investment in geological exploration annually since 2022, the highest three-year period in a decade.

China has also in the past year tightened control over exports of strategic minerals, many of which are crucial to chip manufacturing, including gallium, germanium, antimony, graphite and tungsten, in response to US curbs on tech exports to China.

Cory Combs, associate director of Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China, said China provided subsidies, tax incentives and other kinds of support for the domestic mining sector “regardless” of commodities market cycles.

“In a strict market sense, it is wasteful. But in a political and economic security sense, it is not wasteful at all, it is worth the cost,” Combs said. “In Beijing’s view money is not the sole point.”

Xinjiang — the research-rich but poor western region where Beijing has repressed Uyghur and other Muslim minorities — increased support for geological exploration to Rmb650mn in 2025, from Rmb150mn in 2023. It has also sharply stepped up issuance of mining exploration rights to record levels.

The National Development and Reform Commission, which has oversight over resources, did not respond to questions.

China has also made long-standing efforts to lock up control of critical resources overseas. The FT reported in January that China had over the course of two decades issued $57bn in loans via at least 26 state-backed financial institutions for mining and processing copper, cobalt, nickel, lithium and rare earths across the developing world.

Under Xi, Beijing has also enacted policies aimed at protecting strategic resources. These included a move in 2021 to block foreign companies from investing, even indirectly, in mining tungsten, rare earths and uranium. It also required approval from the state council, China’s cabinet, for any foreigner to enter a rare earth mining area.

Last year, a committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp parliament, established a legal mechanism to make it easier for companies to exploit farmland for mineral resource exploration and obtain mining rights.

SAN JOSE, California, March 19 (Reuters) - Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday that his company has not been approached about purchasing a stake in Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab.

During a press conference at Nvidia's annual developer conference in San Jose, California, Huang was asked whether Nvidia was part of a consortium to buy Intel.

"Nobody's invited us to a consortium," Huang said. "Nobody invited me. Maybe other people are involved, but I don't know. There might be a party. I wasn't invited."

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler