Nvidia may be riding the AI hardware boom wave right now, but the company is still dependent on TSMC's output when it comes to manufacturing advanced chips, including the chips used in its latest Blackwell AI GPU.

TSMC's newly appointed chairman, C.C. Wei, discussed pricing with Nvidia head Jen-Hsun Huang (via Techspot) and threw hints to reporters that the GPU giant may be considering raising manufacturing prices.

"I complained to Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia ("the 3 trillion man"), that his products were very expensive.

"Anyone sitting at home could think [of this strategy]," he said, noting that since all of Nvidia's expensive chips are manufactured by TSMC, asking for more money was a fairly obvious business decision.

Jen-Hsun Huang appeared to be cool with the possibility of a price increase, at least on some level, telling reporters at Computex: "[TSMC's] contribution to the industry is really great and a price increase... I think it's consistent with the value they provide. It's great to see them succeed.

Indeed, Nvidia is racking up profits. With a market capitalization recently surpassing $3 trillion, the tech giant now occupies the enviable position of third place on the list of top companies by estimated market capitalization, behind Microsoft and Apple (the latter's share price has surged, putting it back in front of Nvidia).

Nvidia's Blackwell AI GPUs sell by the thousands, and the previous generation of AI-accelerated GPUs, the Hopper GPUs, also sold in huge numbers, bringing in huge sums of money.

While rising power costs may be at the core of possible future manufacturing price increases, it is not hard to see why TSMC is looking to pass on some of its overhead costs to its largest customers and potentially increase its own profits.

Of course, all this talk of price increases is based on the AI hardware boom. For us gamers, it remains to be seen if this will affect consumer GPU prices when Nvidia's next generation of cards are released.