Nvidia’s Supply Chain Universe: Buyers Are Just Living in It

Nvidia’s stunning Q1 results demonstrate the company’s preeminent position in the technology industry and testify to its growing influence over the electronics supply chain.

Beyond Nvidia’s domination of the hottest segment of today’s chip market—the data center AI accelerators business—the company is reshaping the supply dynamics of other electronic segments and fundamentally changing how chips are developed.

Nvidia’s Data Center Division Takes Center Stage

Nvidia’s Q1 revenue for its 2025 fiscal year totaled $26.0 billion, rising 18% sequentially and up by a stunning 262% from a year earlier. The company’s Data Center division revenue increased by 23% compared to Q4, 2023, and by an astounding 427% on a year-over-year basis.

Putting that into perspective, Nvidia’s total sales in its Q1 were nearly equal to its revenue for its entire 2022 fiscal year, when revenue totaled $26.9 billion.

Nvidia’s Q2 outlook calls for revenue of $28 billion, marking a slowdown in the growth rate from Q1 but still resulting in a more than 100% year-on-year expansion.

Nvidia’s incredible performance is based on its hegemony in data center AI chips, with its line of GPU-based devices giving the company an estimated 80% share of the market for data-center AI accelerators. The company has benefited from its long-held leadership in GPU technology, allowing it to create a software/hardware ecosystem that represents an enormous competitive advantage.

With sales of AI-oriented GPUs set to rise at nearly a 26% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2023 and 2029, according to Yole Group, Nvidia is in an optimal position to capitalize on this expected growth.

Nvidia’s flagship AI GPU, the H100, has been in critically short supply, causing per-unit pricing to rise to as much as $40,000 this year. Despite the high price tag, sales are booming as customers continue to line up to equip their data centers with advanced AI capabilities.

Interestingly, Nvidia’s data center chips have become a form of wealth unto themselves, with venture capitalists buying up the devices for their own startups and major customers like Tesla highlighting how many GPUs they own.

A Ripple Effect for Buyers

The scramble to source sufficient quantities of Nvidia chips has become a paramount concern for buyers working for data center server suppliers. However, Nvidia’s success is also having a significant impact on purchasing conditions in other segments of the electronics supply, including:

• **Memory, with the Commodity IQ Price Index soaring to nearly three times the baseline in April; the increase is driven by rising average selling prices (ASPs) for DRAM, specifically for the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) DRAM specified by Nvidia for use with its data center accelerators.
• **Packaging, with semiconductor manufacturers and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) focusing on providing the type of advanced enclosures used for GPUs and other AI acceleration chips.
• **Copper, where price increases accelerated throughout April; the Copper Monthly Metals Index (MMI) from Commodity IQ research partner MetalMiner rose 17.36% sequentially during the month, partly growing demand for electronic components used in AI applications.
• **Semiconductor manufacturing, with Nvidia partnering with leading foundry TSMC and EDA vendor Synopsys to use generative AI in computational lithography in order to dramatically accelerate the pace of semiconductor production.

Nvidia’s dominant position has direct and indirect impacts on the supply chain, affecting availability and pricing in a wide array of components and commodities. As commodity managers assess the state of the supply chain, they should carefully examine how Nvidia’s actions will impact purchasing conditions and adjust their strategies and tactics accordingly.