AI Compute Race Heats Up in Advanced Packaging! Amkor Soars 15% After Hours on $1.5B NVIDIA Investment for Packaging Plant Expansion

Global AI chip leader NVIDIA announced on Thursday (23rd) a strategic agreement worth $1.5 billion with Amkor Technology, a major U.S.-based semiconductor packaging and test provider headquartered in Arizona. Under the agreement, NVIDIA will provide upfront funding to support Amkor’s expansion of advanced packaging and testing capacity in Arizona. Following the announcement, Amkor’s stock surged approximately 15% in after-hours trading.

Packaging is a critical final step in semiconductor manufacturing, where chips are enclosed in protective casings and interconnected with peripheral components to become functional computing units. In AI platforms such as Blackwell and Rubin, advanced packaging directly determines bandwidth, yield, and delivery timelines.

The new capacity in Arizona is not intended to replace Amkor’s existing Asian operations but will complement its established network in Asia, creating a geographically diversified and resilient global supply chain.

For NVIDIA, this marks another in a series of strategic supply chain partnerships. With advanced packaging capacity—such as TSMC’s CoWoS—overwhelmed by AI demand and lead times stretching into triple digits in weeks, securing U.S.-based packaging capacity in advance through financial commitment has become a necessity.

Analysts note that NVIDIA’s move also aligns with U.S. semiconductor onshoring policies, further anchoring the cycle of 'wafer fabrication—advanced packaging—AI infrastructure' within the United States. While it won’t immediately resolve the global packaging shortage, the investment significantly elevates Amkor’s strategic position within the North American AI compute supply chain.