Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) Rubin, its next-generation graphics processing unit, might face a delay in its production ramp at TSMC (NYSE:TSM) due to a redesign, according to Fubon Financial, a Taiwanese financial services firm.
"We think it is very likely that Rubin will be delayed," said Fubon analyst Sherman Shang, in a research note. "The first version of Rubin was already taped out in late June, but Nvidia is now redesigning the chip to better match AMD's (NASDAQ:AMD) upcoming MI450."
"We think the next tape out schedule will be in late September or October, and based on the tape out schedule, the Rubin volume will be limited in 2026," Shang added.
A tapeout in semiconductor manufacturing refers to the final stage of an integrated circuit design. The design is verified and finalized before being sent to the foundry for fabrication.
The Rubin GPU will be the successor to Nvidia's Blackwell models, which continue to ramp up, according to Moore Morris, an analyst at Nomad Semi. In a post on X, Morris said Blackwell volumes hit 750,000 in the first quarter of 2025, 1.2M during the second quarter, and will reach 1.5M and 1.6M in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.
Morris also said that AMD and Broadcom (AVGO) are currently the fastest-growing customers for CoWoS, or Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate, for TSMC. However, Nvidia still dominates capacity at 51.4% in 2025 compared to Broadcom at 16.2% and AMD at 7.7%. However, Broadcom and AMD's capacity allocation is expected to reach 17.4% and 9.2%, respectively, in 2026, while Nvidia dips slightly to 50.1%.
Seeking Alpha reached out to Nvidia regarding the potential delay.
According to multiple reports, Rubin was slated for mass production in late 2025 and available for purchase in early 2026.
