- Nvidia invests $5 billion in Intel as part of a surprise new collaboration
- Intel to design custom x86 CPUs for Nvidia data center platforms
- New Intel x86 RTX SoCs with Nvidia GPUs to power future PCs
Intel and Nvidia have announced a wide-ranging partnership which will will see the former design and manufacture custom x86 processors for Nvidia’s data center platforms, as well as build new consumer chips for the PC market.
The agreement will also see Nvidia investing $5 billion in Intel’s common stock at $23.28 per share, pending regulatory approval.
“AI is powering a new industrial revolution and reinventing every layer of the computing stack - from silicon to systems to software," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
"At the heart of this reinvention is Nvidia’s CUDA architecture. This historic collaboration tightly couples Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem - a fusion of two world-class platforms. Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing.”
Landmark deal - but questions remain
The companies said they plan to develop multiple generations of products together.
For the data center, Intel will build Nvidia-custom x86 CPUs that Nvidia will integrate into its AI infrastructure.
For PCs, Intel will manufacture x86 system-on-chips that integrate Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets connected via NVLink.
These processors will be marketed as Intel x86 RTX SoCs and are aimed at gaming laptops and compact PCs.
“Intel’s x86 architecture has been foundational to modern computing for decades - and we are innovating across our portfolio to enable the workloads of the future," noted Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.
"Intel’s leading data center and client computing platforms, combined with our process technology, manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities, will complement Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing leadership to enable new breakthroughs for the industry."
The investment comes at a good time for Intel, which has gone through some well-documented struggles recently that led to the US government stepping in to acquire a 10% stake in the chip maker.
"We appreciate the confidence Jensen and the Nvidia team have placed in us with their investment and look forward to the work ahead as we innovate for customers and grow our business,” Tan added.
Nvidia stressed, the collaboration is at an early stage and product timelines are not yet set.
Although it remains committed to its Arm-based processors such as Grace and Vera, the GPU behemoth described the Intel roadmap as additive.
Intel has not confirmed whether these new chips will be manufactured entirely on its own nodes or partly outsourced to TSMC.
The announcement, while a surprise, fits Intel’s drive to strengthen its IDM 2.0 strategy and partnerships, as Nvidia expands its processors for AI and consumer computing.
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