Chapter 1
The Denny's bet
Chapter 2
The accidental AI revolution
Chapter 3
The trillion-dollar engine
Chapter 4
The geopolitics of silicon
Ch 4 · The geopolitics of silicon
nic The Environmental Cost
Twelve hundred watts, twelve hundred watts. The cooling towers run all night.
nic As a fabless company, Nvidia relies entirely on TSMC, making its supply vulnerable to geopolitical conflicts and natural disasters in Taiwan.
Quiz
Which manufacturing giant, based in Taiwan, physically produces almost all of Nvidia's most advanced AI and graphics microchips?
Quiz
Why is Nvidia's complete reliance on Taiwanese manufacturing considered a massive risk by global financial markets?
nic These machines use extreme ultraviolet light to print nanometer wide circuits on silicon
Quiz
What wavelength of light do ASML's Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) machines use to print microscopic circuit patterns?
Quiz
Based in the Netherlands, which company is the sole commercial manufacturer of the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines?
Fun Fact
EUV machine complexity: A single ASML extreme ultraviolet lithography machine costs up to $350 million and requires three Boeing 747s to ship.
Quiz
In response to US export restrictions on the high-end H100 chip, which modified, lower-bandwidth chip did Nvidia design for China?
Quiz
Why did the United States government impose strict export controls restricting Nvidia from shipping advanced AI chips to China?
Glossary
semiconductor (noun)
A substance with electrical conductivity intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor. To secure its supply chain, Nvidia moved semiconductor assembly and testing to United States soil.
A substance with electrical conductivity intermediate between that of an insulator and a conductor. To secure its supply chain, Nvidia moved semiconductor assembly and testing to United States soil.
Quiz
What is the primary environmental resource that traditional AI data centers consume millions of gallons of daily for cooling?
Quiz
Introduced in 2026, what is the name of Nvidia's new cooling technology that uses closed-loop liquid systems?