June 24, 2024 – According to a report by the Economic Daily News, a Taiwanese media outlet, NVIDIA’s new GB200 series AI chips are in high demand, with supplies struggling to meet the current market needs. Following an increase in the production volume of advanced processes at TSMC, NVIDIA has placed additional orders with backend packaging and testing factories, namely ASE Technology and King Yuan Electronics. As a result, the related order volume for these two companies is expected to double in the fourth quarter compared to the previous one.
The GB200 chip, unveiled on March 19th, consists of two B200 Blackwell GPUs and an Arm-based Grace CPU. This powerful combination boasts a 30-fold improvement in large language model inference performance compared to the H100, while significantly reducing costs and energy consumption to just one-twenty-fifth of the previous level.
ASE Technology, through its subsidiary Siliconware Precision Industries, maintains a close relationship with NVIDIA. It not only handles the oS process of TSMC’s CoWoS advanced packaging but also arranges testing capabilities at its plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park. This comprehensive setup allows NVIDIA to enjoy a seamless production service from wafer backend to packaging and testing.
King Yuan Electronics, on the other hand, while acknowledging its high capacity utilization rate, declined to comment on specific customers. However, insiders revealed that the company has received a surge of new orders from NVIDIA, prompting an internal mobilization to allocate more production capacity to meet the demand.
Industry analysts note that the testing process for the GB200 and B series AI chips has been significantly extended compared to the previous H series. The chips must undergo a rigorous four-step procedure, including a final test, burn-in aging test, another final test, and ultimately a system-level test (SLT).
A report released by TrendForce indicates that the supply chain is optimistic about the GB200 AI chip, predicting shipments to exceed one million units by 2025. Furthermore, due to the increased testing time, ASE Technology and King Yuan Electronics are poised to become the “big winners” in backend packaging and testing.
