Nvidia's next flagship data-center product, code-named Kyber, has been pushed back roughly a year to 2028, according to a CNBC report published July 6, 2026, citing research from semiconductor analysis firm SemiAnalysis.
Kyber is a rack-scale system designed to pack 144 of Nvidia's forthcoming Rubin Ultra GPUs into a single cabinet, linking them through dense NVLink interconnects so the chips function as one large computer for training frontier AI models. The setback traces to a specialized 78-layer printed circuit board "midplane" that mounts chips vertically inside the rack. SemiAnalysis said the component has run into signal-integrity, power-delivery, and thermal-design problems that make it difficult to manufacture at the volume hyperscale customers would need.
Backup plan scrapped
Nvidia had reportedly explored a stopgap design, known as NVL72x2, that would bolt together two of its current-generation NVL72 racks as a bridge until Kyber was ready. According to the report, major cloud customers rejected that approach as operationally awkward and too costly, and Nvidia dropped it.
Competitive and market implications
Analysts cited in the coverage said the delay creates a rare opening for rivals — particularly AMD and Google, whose custom Tensor Processing Units could pick up hyperscaler workloads and budget that might otherwise have waited for Kyber. Reaction in Nvidia shares was reportedly muted, since the company's current Blackwell- and Rubin-generation systems remain sold out and in full production; SemiAnalysis projected Nvidia's data-center compute revenue could still run about 20% above Wall Street's consensus estimate for the second half of fiscal 2027.
Nvidia has not issued its own public statement confirming the delay or the abandoned backup design; the reporting is attributed to SemiAnalysis's research and sourcing. Current Rubin-generation systems are still expected to begin shipping to major cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, later this year, ahead of any Kyber rollout.
Source: CNBC