NVIDIA’s new Blackwell GB200 AI servers ‘component shortage’ leading to short supply in Q4 2024

It looks like there is a “component shortage” for NVIDIA’s new Blackwell-based GB200 AI servers, with market demand in Taiwan at the highest levels because of the AI market needing as many chips as possible.

In a new report from Taiwan Economic Daily, we’re learning that NVIDIA’s new GB200 AI servers are experiencing huge development issues, with the main problem stemming from leaks from the liquid cooling system inside of the next-generation multi-million-dollar AI server.

The water leakage inside of a GB200 AI server would be a disaster as you can imagine, with Taiwanese manufacturers moving into emergency mode to solve it, with new Taiwanese suppliers stepping up to help NVIDIA get its GB200 AI servers to market.

NVIDIA’s new Blackwell AI GPUs were also hit with another gigantic issue: reports of ‘major issues’ with the Blackwell AI GPU, which would require a redesign. That was so big that NVIDIA is reportedly re-working B200 into the B200A, which won’t have these issues. This problem on top of water-cooling leaks, are going to have a flow on effect (pardon the pun) which will see delays of GB200 AI server shipments.

The “public version” of GB200 AI servers is the reference design from NVIDIA for its customers, and not a custom GB200 AI server. If the customer has customized needs, then the GB200 AI server would be a non-public item, which is why Foxconn is able to get GB200 AI servers out in the last quarter of this year, versus shipping in 2025 like everybody else.

Foxconn is NVIDIA’s largest partner for its new Blackwell-based GB200 AI server, with 40-50% of the contract. Because of this, Foxconn is able to pump out the public version of GB200 AI servers later this year, which we should hear more about in the weeks ahead.