Where Does AMD Make Its Processors?

Nvidia may be much bigger than AMD, yet AMD can provide similar performance at a significantly lower budget. So, the latter may be a more reasonable choice if you're trying to keep the costs of your build under control. Does the manufacturing location play a role in pricing? Well, the affordability of Ryzen stuff has nothing to do with manufacturing. Rather, it's a strategic move on AMD's part, as the company practically focuses on providing more performance per dollar. 

All AMD processors come out of a country that produces the most computer chips: Taiwan. More precisely, the manufacturer of AMD chips is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, for short. This company is the biggest producer of semiconductors in the world, one that shows no signs of slowing down – so much so that it also has manufacturing facilities in Arizona, likely to avoid any import problems with Washington. In fact, this is where AMD decided to produce some of its AI chips that are about 20% more expensive than products coming out of Taiwan.

For AMD processors, the story doesn't end there. After production, AMD takes the chips, applies the silicon die, tests everything, and finally puts together the CPU, likely in its TF-AMD Microelectronics facility in Penang, Malaysia. However, some processors are also put together and packaged in China, which again isn't surprising considering AMD owns a multitude of locations in the country.

There's no cost-cutting involved, and if the Taiwan tag seems like a red flag, it really shouldn't. TSMC also manufactures chips for Nvidia. The deeper you dig, the similarities between these two competitors only get more pronounced. Like AMD, Nvidia also spreads the rest of its manufacturing across various locations. So, if you're on the ropes about AMD just because it assembles its products overseas, you're practically getting the same with Nvidia.

TSMC is particularly interesting as it ties various companies together. As the largest independent semiconductor manufacturer, it produces chips for both AMD and Nvidia, as well as Apple and Tesla. TSMC also gets a lion's share of its revenue from producing chips for 5G smartphones and a slew of smart devices – if you've got any tech in your home, there's a 99.9% chance something came out of TSMC's Taiwan plant.

Right now, memory and chips are in high demand (an understatement of the century). So getting a processor now may be smart before prices rise again. TSMC has earned billions from the AI explosion so far, and considering a handful of companies control the manufacturing of chips, processors, and GPUs, no one can say when the next price hike will happen or how large it will be.