Jensen Huang revealed: Nvidia has replaced Apple to become TSMC’s largest customer.

The wave of artificial intelligence is reshaping the global semiconductor supply chain landscape. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently revealed that, thanks to the explosive demand for AI processors, the company has replaced Apple to become TSMC's largest customer.

This news comes from Huang's recent remarks during an interview with Global Semiconductor Alliance CEO Jodi Shelton. In a podcast episode, he mentioned that, looking back on his promise to TSMC founder Morris Chang, NVIDIA has now established itself as TSMC's largest source of revenue, ending Apple’s long-standing run at the top.

This reshuffling highlights the strong pull that enterprise-level AI capital expenditure has on upstream foundry capacity. While Apple maintains high sales through consumer electronics like iPhone and Mac, enterprise clients, seeking AI computing power, are willing to spend vast sums acquiring GPUs. This enterprise-level, price-insensitive demand model is overtaking traditional consumer electronics orders, driving NVIDIA’s revenues upward.

As capacity shifts toward AI chips, the market is rumored that TSMC may be raising prices for Apple. According to media reports, because AI demand is squeezing production space for other semiconductors, Apple is not only facing rising cost pressures but its production priority at TSMC may also be challenged, indicating that supply chain influence is shifting alongside changes in end-market demand.

Back to the Top

In the first episode of the podcast "A Bit Personal with Jodi Shelton," Shelton asked Jensen Huang about the source of his confidence in his early years and recalled a story mentioned by TSMC founder Morris Chang: Huang boldly claimed at their first meeting that he would become TSMC’s largest customer, which Chang thought was very ambitious. In the interview, Huang responded, "By the way, Morris would be happy to know that NVIDIA is now TSMC's largest customer."

This is not the first time NVIDIA has occupied this position. At the beginning of the 21st century, the company was TSMC's top customer. However, after the 2010s, as Intel missed out on a partnership with Apple, TSMC took on manufacturing orders for iPhone and iPad processors. As the iPhone’s global market share surpassed Samsung, Apple held the title of TSMC's largest customer for a long time, until the AI wave pushed NVIDIA past Apple.

The Triumph of Enterprise Spending

NVIDIA’s return to the top reflects profound changes in the semiconductor end market. Although Apple’s smartphones, tablets, and Mac lineup—powered by Apple Silicon chips—still drive record sales, the GPU demand spurred by the AI boom follows a completely different growth logic.

Enterprise clients are willing to pay NVIDIA billions of dollars to acquire as many AI processors as possible, driven mainly by a computing power arms race with extremely low price sensitivity. By contrast, consumers in the consumer electronics field face clear price caps—if smartphones or laptops are priced too high, users will switch brands.

Currently, tech companies are investing huge sums to purchase tens of thousands of GPUs to train cutting-edge models. As long as enterprises believe that increased computing power can generate more profits, NVIDIA can continue to reap massive revenues in this nearly monopolized market.

Capacity Squeeze and Potential Risks

This dramatic shift in demand may be changing TSMC’s pricing strategy. According to WCCFTech citing Weibo tech leak account Fixed Focus Digital, AI demand is squeezing foundry capacity for other semiconductors, and TSMC is raising chip prices for Apple.

Additionally, rumors suggest that Apple may lose its production priority. Although this is currently just market speculation and relevant contractual information is typically confidential, it reflects the resource allocation tensions within the supply chain arising from the AI demand surge.

It's worth noting that NVIDIA’s current success is highly tied to the hype in the AI market. If the AI bubble bursts and a large number of newly built AI data centers sit idle without clients, demand will drop rapidly. In that scenario, Apple—with its more sustainable business model—may regain its position as TSMC’s largest customer.

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