Pat Gelsinger applauds NVIDIA’s first Blackwell wafer made in the US, calls it a milestone for American chipmaking
In a rare public nod to a rival, Intel’s former CEO Pat Gelsinger praised NVIDIA for producing its first Blackwell chip wafer on U.S. soil. In a post on X, Gelsinger said the industry needs to build its most advanced products in America, congratulated the effort, and urged the pace to “go faster” and “build more.” For a leader who has often criticized NVIDIA’s AI strategy, the show of support underscores how vital onshore manufacturing has become to the semiconductor industry.
Gelsinger has long championed bringing cutting-edge production back to the United States. During his tenure, he launched the IDM 2.0 strategy and pushed major investments in domestic fabs under Intel’s foundry ambitions, aligning closely with the goals of the CHIPS Act. His stance helped fuel the broader “Made in USA” momentum years before many of today’s Big Tech manufacturing pushes gathered steam.
NVIDIA’s move to start Blackwell wafer production in Arizona is a significant step toward rebuilding American leadership in advanced semiconductors. Still, major challenges remain. The U.S. continues to face a shortage of OSAT capacity—outsourced assembly and test services—including advanced packaging. Without robust domestic capabilities for packaging, testing, and related supply chain elements, many chips must still rely on overseas partners to complete the journey from wafer to finished product. Building that full-stack ecosystem, from substrates and materials to packaging and workforce training, will take sustained investment and time.
The praise also lands against the backdrop of a fierce Intel–NVIDIA rivalry that intensified under Gelsinger. He has described NVIDIA’s CUDA software stack as a moat and has argued that NVIDIA’s accelerators can be costly for inference workloads, an area Intel has repeatedly targeted. Despite that competitive tension, the broader industry appears aligned on one goal: creating a resilient, end-to-end U.S. semiconductor supply chain capable of delivering advanced AI hardware domestically.
If NVIDIA’s Blackwell milestone is any indication, onshore chipmaking is entering a new phase—one where wafer fabrication, advanced packaging, and large-scale supply chain resilience must grow in lockstep. For policymakers, chipmakers, and the broader ecosystem, the message is clear: the U.S. needs more capacity, faster timelines, and sustained commitment to achieve true semiconductor self-sufficiency.
