NVIDIA gets most of the headlines, but it doesn’t build its dominance alone. A handful of less-visible companies supply the chips, components, and infrastructure that make every NVIDIA GPU possible — and several of them have quietly delivered strong returns to investors who knew where to look. This article breaks down who those companies are, what they actually do, and how to think about them as investments in 2026.
The term “silent partners” covers two main groups. The first is NVIDIA’s semiconductor supply chain: TSMC manufactures the chips, ASML makes the machines that make manufacturing possible, Applied Materials supplies the fabrication equipment, ARM licenses the CPU architecture, and Marvell Technology keeps data moving inside AI data centers. The second group handles physical infrastructure: Amphenol supplies interconnects and cable cartridges for NVIDIA’s AI factories, and Vertiv provides the power and thermal management those factories depend on. for more on how the hardware stack fits together.
For context: NVIDIA’s Q4 fiscal 2026 data center revenue hit $62.3 billion — up 75% year-over-year — according to the company’s official February 2026 earnings release. That kind of growth means a lot of business flowing to the companies around it. Whether that translates to investment opportunity depends on valuation, risk tolerance, and time horizon.
Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Research These Stocks
✅ Worth a Closer Look If You:
- Already hold NVIDIA and want broader exposure to the AI infrastructure theme
- Prefer companies with lower headline valuations than NVDA
- Are comfortable with a multi-year holding period on cyclical tech plays
- Want to understand NVIDIA’s supply chain before making any investment decision
❌ Probably Not the Right Angle If You:
- Want direct, concentrated NVIDIA exposure — in that case, NVDA itself is simpler
- Need near-term income (most of these are growth stocks with minimal dividends)
- Are uncomfortable with semiconductor cycle risk or US-Taiwan geopolitical considerations
What Does “Silent Partner” Actually Mean Here?
The phrase comes from an investing framework called the “picks and shovels” theory. During a gold rush, the most consistent money often goes not to the prospectors hunting for gold, but to the people selling them the tools to do it — the pickaxe makers, the shovel suppliers, the general stores. The idea is that infrastructure suppliers tend to have more predictable demand than the companies in the spotlight.
Applied to NVIDIA, the logic is: everyone needs NVIDIA’s GPUs, so the companies that make those GPUs possible — or that build the facilities to run them — capture a share of that demand with somewhat less headline risk. for more context on how NVIDIA’s chips fit into the broader consumer tech picture.
That said, “picks and shovels” isn’t a guaranteed formula. If NVIDIA diversifies its supply chain, or if the AI buildout slows, these suppliers feel it too. Knowing who they are is a starting point, not a conclusion.
Four Categories of NVIDIA Partners
- Chip manufacturers: Companies that physically fabricate NVIDIA’s GPUs (TSMC)
- Equipment suppliers: Companies that make the machines chip fabricators use (ASML, Applied Materials)
- Chip architecture licensors: Companies whose technology is embedded in NVIDIA’s designs (ARM Holdings)
- Data center infrastructure: Companies building the physical and networking layer around NVIDIA’s hardware (Marvell Technology, Amphenol, Vertiv Holdings)
5 Core Supply Chain Partners
1. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) — Ticker: TSM
TSMC is the most critical link in NVIDIA’s supply chain. It manufactures virtually all of NVIDIA’s flagship GPUs — including the H100 and Blackwell B200 series — using leading-edge 4nm and 3nm processes. Without TSMC’s factories in Taiwan, there are no NVIDIA AI chips at scale.
How significant is NVIDIA to TSMC? As of early 2026, CNBC reported that NVIDIA is on track to surpass Apple as TSMC’s single largest customer. TSMC’s high-performance computing (HPC) segment — which includes NVIDIA’s AI chips — represented 55% of TSMC’s Q4 net revenue, per Digitimes reporting on the company’s latest earnings.
As of March 5, 2026, TSM shares traded at approximately $358, with a market cap of roughly $1.85 trillion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies. (Check current pricing on your preferred financial platform, as prices fluctuate daily.)
Investment angle: TSMC holds a near-monopoly on leading-edge semiconductor fabrication. No other foundry can currently match its volume or yield at 3nm and below. That moat is real — but so is the geographic concentration risk given Taiwan’s geopolitical situation.
2. ASML Holding — Ticker: ASML
ASML is one step further upstream than TSMC: it makes the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that TSMC uses to manufacture advanced chips. Without ASML’s machines, nobody — including TSMC — can produce chips at 7nm or below. It’s the only company in the world that builds EUV systems.
That monopoly position shows in the long-term numbers. According to FinanceCharts, ASML’s 5-year total return is approximately 144.86% and its 10-year total return is approximately 1,722%. Year-to-date through early March 2026, the stock was up about 32.88%.
Investment newsletters (including a widely circulated teaser series from Weiss Ratings) have cited historical ASML returns of as much as 471% over certain multi-year periods — consistent with the longer-term data above. for coverage of the chip technologies that rely on ASML’s equipment.
Investment angle: True bottleneck play. Every advanced chip — NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm — requires ASML machines to exist. The downside is that the company is Dutch-listed and subject to export control restrictions on selling to China, which creates revenue risk.
3. Applied Materials — Ticker: AMAT
Applied Materials supplies the fabrication equipment used in semiconductor wafer production — think deposition systems, etching tools, and inspection technology. It’s a major supplier to TSMC and other foundries that manufacture NVIDIA’s GPUs.
The company returned approximately 95% to shareholders over the year ending early 2026, with shares trading near $374 as of late February 2026, according to MarketBeat data. Applied Materials expects semiconductor-equipment revenue to grow more than 20% in 2026 as AI demand expands total chip industry sales toward an estimated $1 trillion annual run rate.
Investment angle: More diversified than ASML — serves a broader range of chip types and customers. Historically cited return of ~452% over a multi-year AI buildout period, per analyst commentary in competitor sources. More cyclical than ASML due to its product diversity.
4. ARM Holdings — Ticker: ARM
ARM doesn’t make chips. It licenses chip architecture — essentially the instruction set blueprint that most modern processors run on. NVIDIA’s Grace CPU, which powers the Grace Blackwell Superchip used in AI servers, is built on ARM architecture. Every time a chip using ARM’s design ships, ARM collects a royalty.
ARM went public in September 2023 in one of the largest tech IPOs in recent memory. As of March 2026, shares traded near $124 with a market cap of approximately $129–$132 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap data.
Investment angle: Asset-light, royalty-based business model with exposure to AI, mobile, automotive, and data center growth simultaneously. Valuation is high relative to current earnings, but the royalty stream grows each time ARM-based chips ship in volume.
5. Marvell Technology — Ticker: MRVL
Marvell doesn’t manufacture GPUs. It handles what happens after the GPU is built: moving data fast enough to keep it useful. Marvell’s optical interconnects and cloud-optimized silicon are critical to data center networking — enabling AI training clusters and inference servers to communicate at the speeds AI workloads demand.
The company gets roughly 40% of its revenue from data centers, per the Motley Fool’s analysis. As of March 6, 2026, MRVL shares traded near $79.80, with a market cap of approximately $66–$68 billion and a P/E of roughly 27x, according to StockAnalysis.com. The 52-week range has been $47.09 to $102.77, reflecting semiconductor industry volatility.
Investment angle: More reasonable valuation compared to NVIDIA. Data center exposure without the full pricing premium of the GPU manufacturer. Citi analyst Atif Malik named it a top specialty semiconductor pick in early 2024, citing its role at the intersection of AI and data center networking.
3 AI Infrastructure Partners
6. Amphenol — Ticker: APH
Amphenol is a connector and cable company — and that description undersells it considerably. It supplies the physical interconnects that allow servers to communicate within AI data centers, including the copper cable cartridges used in NVIDIA’s AI factory infrastructure. CEO R. Adam Norwitt confirmed the company’s role in NVIDIA’s Blackwell ecosystem in NVIDIA’s official June 2024 COMPUTEX press release.
The company’s products touch a wide range of industries beyond data centers — mobile networks, aerospace, automotive — giving it revenue diversification that pure-play AI firms lack. As of March 2026, shares traded near $136 with a market cap in the $163–$187 billion range, per StockAnalysis.com. Net margin runs around 17%, which is strong for a hardware components business.
An analyst teaser series from Weiss Ratings described one of its “silent partner” picks as a company whose products are “used by more than 5 billion people worldwide” — widely identified as Amphenol, given its role across both mobile infrastructure and AI data centers.
Investment angle: Commodity-adjacent business with above-average margins and confirmed NVIDIA ecosystem role. At approximately 33x earnings, it’s not cheap, but it’s not purely an AI hype story either.
7. Vertiv Holdings — Ticker: VRT
Vertiv provides the power management, thermal management, and monitoring systems that keep data centers running — including NVIDIA’s AI factories. Without Vertiv’s cooling and power distribution systems, high-density GPU clusters overheat or lose power reliability.
The financial story here is compelling: Vertiv reported full-year 2025 revenue of $10.23 billion, up 27.69% year-over-year, per its official investor relations filings. Q3 2025 organic orders grew approximately 60% year-over-year, and the company’s backlog reached $9.5 billion with a book-to-bill ratio of around 1.4x — meaning orders are coming in faster than they can be shipped. The company serves three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies with data center infrastructure.
for more coverage of the hardware ecosystem that feeds into AI infrastructure spending.
Investment angle: Strong demand visibility (backlog of $9.5B), direct exposure to AI data center buildout. The caveat: the stock has traded at elevated multiples — as high as 57x earnings — so entry timing matters more here than for the chip supply chain names.
NVIDIA’s Silent Partners: Quick Comparison
| Company | Ticker | Role in NVIDIA Ecosystem | Approx. Market Cap (Mar 2026) | Key Metric | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSMC | TSM | GPU manufacturer (4nm/3nm) | ~$1.85T | NVIDIA on track to be #1 customer | Medium (geopolitical) |
| ASML Holding | ASML | EUV lithography machines for chipmakers | ~$340B+ | 5-yr return: +144.86% | Medium (export controls) |
| Applied Materials | AMAT | Fab equipment for chip production | ~$320B+ | ~95% 1-yr return (early 2026) | Medium (cyclical) |
| ARM Holdings | ARM | CPU architecture licensing (Grace CPU) | ~$129–132B | Royalty model; IPO Sept 2023 | Medium-High (valuation) |
| Marvell Technology | MRVL | Optical interconnects, data center networking | ~$66–68B | ~40% data center revenue; P/E ~27x | Medium |
| Amphenol | APH | Cables, connectors for AI factories | ~$163–187B | Net margin ~17%; P/E ~33x | Low-Medium |
| Vertiv Holdings | VRT | Power/thermal management for data centers | N/A (check current) | 2025 revenue +27.7%; backlog $9.5B | Medium (valuation) |
Market cap figures are approximate as of early March 2026. Stock prices fluctuate daily — check current data before making any investment decision.
Risks Every Investor Should Understand
Geopolitical Risk (TSMC)
TSMC operates its most advanced fabrication facilities in Taiwan. The US-China relationship and Taiwan Strait tensions create a persistent tail risk that is difficult to quantify but impossible to ignore. TSMC has been building facilities in Arizona and Japan to reduce concentration, but its leading-edge capacity remains largely Taiwan-based.
Supply Chain Diversification
NVIDIA could, over time, shift more manufacturing to Intel Foundry Services or Samsung. If that happens, TSMC’s revenue concentration in NVIDIA chips becomes less of a strength and more of an exposure. The same logic applies to equipment suppliers — NVIDIA’s suppliers can become NVIDIA’s competitors’ suppliers too.
Valuation Risk
Several of these names trade at meaningful premiums: Vertiv at times hit 57x earnings, ARM is expensive on current earnings, and Amphenol runs around 33x. If AI infrastructure spending slows — or if the market simply rotates away from growth multiples — these stocks face more downside than, say, a value stock trading at 10x earnings.
Semiconductor Cyclicality
The chip industry runs in cycles. 2023 was a down year for most semiconductor equipment companies. Marvell’s revenue fell 9% in the first three quarters of its fiscal 2024. These companies can and do hit rough patches even during broader AI buildouts. traces some of these cycles from a consumer hardware angle.
Newsletter Teaser Inflation
Multiple paid investment newsletters have published “NVIDIA silent partner” teaser campaigns (including Weiss Ratings’ “Disruptors and Dominators” series). When a stock gets named repeatedly in mass-market teaser emails, retail interest can inflate its price ahead of fundamentals. Be cautious when these names trend on investing forums.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are NVIDIA’s silent partner stocks?
The term refers to companies in NVIDIA’s supply chain and infrastructure ecosystem that benefit from NVIDIA’s growth but receive less public attention. The most commonly cited names are TSMC, ASML, Applied Materials, ARM Holdings, Marvell Technology, Amphenol, and Vertiv Holdings. Each plays a different role — from manufacturing chips to building the power and cooling systems that run AI data centers.
Who manufactures NVIDIA’s GPUs?
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) manufactures virtually all of NVIDIA’s flagship GPUs, including the H100 and the Blackwell B200 series, using advanced 4nm and 3nm processes. NVIDIA designs the chips but doesn’t own its own fabrication facilities — it relies entirely on TSMC for production at leading-edge nodes.
Is TSMC the most important NVIDIA partner?
From a supply chain standpoint, yes. NVIDIA cannot ship GPUs without TSMC’s manufacturing. As of 2026, NVIDIA is on track to become TSMC’s largest single customer, surpassing Apple, according to CNBC reporting. TSMC’s HPC segment (which includes NVIDIA’s chips) represented 55% of TSMC’s Q4 net revenue.
Is Marvell Technology a good investment because of NVIDIA?
Marvell has meaningful exposure to data center networking, which benefits from AI buildout. Around 40% of its revenue comes from the data center market. The stock traded near $79.80 in early March 2026 with a P/E of roughly 27x — more reasonable than NVIDIA’s multiple. That said, no investment decision should be based on a single article. Check current financials, analyst coverage, and your own risk tolerance before acting.
What is the “picks and shovels” strategy for AI investing?
It’s an analogy to the California Gold Rush: during a gold rush, the most consistent profits often came not from the miners but from the people selling picks, shovels, and supplies. Applied to AI, the idea is that companies supplying the infrastructure and components for AI growth — chipmakers, equipment suppliers, data center companies — may offer more stable exposure than betting on which specific AI application “wins.”
Are ASML and Applied Materials good buys now?
Both have delivered strong returns: ASML’s 5-year total return is approximately 144.86%; Applied Materials returned roughly 95% in the year ending early 2026. Whether they’re “good buys now” depends on current pricing relative to earnings, your time horizon, and how much cyclical risk you’re comfortable with. Neither is cheap on a historical basis, but both have structural advantages in a world that needs more advanced chips.
What is the NVIDIA Partner Network?
NVIDIA’s Partner Network (NPN) is a formal program through which companies integrate and resell NVIDIA’s products and services. In 2024, NVIDIA recognized 13 Americas partners including World Wide Technology, CDW, Deloitte, and Lambda at its GTC event. These are channel and solutions partners rather than supply chain partners — different from the companies discussed in this article.
How do I invest in NVIDIA’s supply chain without buying NVDA directly?
The companies discussed here — TSMC, ASML, Applied Materials, ARM, Marvell, Amphenol, and Vertiv — are all publicly traded on US exchanges (TSMC and ASML trade as ADRs). You can buy individual shares through any brokerage. Some semiconductor-focused ETFs also hold multiple names in NVIDIA’s supply chain in a single position. As always, do your own research and consider consulting a financial advisor before investing.
Check current stock prices for TSMC (TSM), ASML, Applied Materials (AMAT), ARM Holdings (ARM), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Amphenol (APH), and Vertiv Holdings (VRT) on Yahoo Finance or your preferred platform. Prices move daily, and valuation matters as much as the underlying thesis.
For more coverage of the technology hardware ecosystem, and on ChubbytIps.
