Nvidia admits Blackwell defect, but Jensen Huang pledges Q4 shipments as promised
Nvidia has confirmed earlier reports that its Blackwell generation of GPUs suffered from a design defect that adversely impacted the yields of the hotly anticipated accelerators.
"We executed a change to the Blackwell GPU mask to improve production yields," Nvidia CFO Colette Kress acknowledged on the companuy’s Wednesday's earnings call.
Neither Kress nor CEO Jensen Huang explained the nature of the defect beyond the mention of a mask. However, whatever was wrong with the manufacturing process will stop Nvidia from shipping Blackwell in Q4 as previously promised.
"The change to the mask is complete. There were no functional changes necessary. And so, we're sampling functional samples of Blackwell — Grace Blackwell in a variety of system configurations as we speak," Huang told investors.
Even if Nvidia manages to ship Blackwell on time, the change could simply mean a later ramp and revenue realization than previously planned. Even still, Kress insisted that "Blackwell production ramp is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter and continue into fiscal year '26," and that in Q4, the GPU giant will "ship several billion dollars in Blackwell revenue."
