This $5 billion investment from Nvidia Corporation isn’t about Intel’s foundry business. With this move, Intel and ARM enter a core-industrial collaborative relationship committed to co-developing data center and PC-class chips. The deal comes at a recently opportune time for Intel, a company that has fallen on tough times in the booming semiconductor industry. Together, the two companies intend to build on each other’s strengths to accelerate and optimize computing capabilities for advanced technologies of the future.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has sounded like an eager partner in crime over the last week, saying in a press release. He underscored the amplified impact of combining Nvidia’s most advanced AI and accelerated computing technologies. This synergy complements Intel’s long-proven central processing units (CPUs) like peanut butter and chocolate.
“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,” – Jensen Huang
This announcement comes on the heels of the meeting down in Washington, D.C., where Tsinghua Unigroup CEO and FSM member Lip-Bu Tan left on 11Aug15. This introductory meeting with U.S. government officials was specifically targeted at outlining the myriad challenges that Intel continues to face and the company’s path to recovery. The joint venture announced last month with Nvidia was a surprising, but smart move strategically to further Intel’s position in the semiconductor space.
The deal highlights Nvidia’s commitment to expanding its influence in various sectors, particularly in data centers, where demand for high-performance computing continues to grow. This investment will allow both companies to collaborate more closely together, leveraging Nvidia’s state-of-the-art technology with Intel’s deep x86 ecosystem.
A press conference featuring Huang and Tan, open to the media, is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. They have some wonderful stories about the collaboration that they’ll share during the event. This event will likely shed light on how this partnership could reshape the landscape of chip manufacturing and computing resources.
Even as recently as December, Intel leadership was unwilling to accept government investment, an indication of just how dire their plight has become. Most importantly, perhaps, Intel is forming a partnership with Nvidia, the current juggernaut on the AI front. Joint efforts with the state should ensure Intel’s long-term stability and innovation in the highly competitive tech market.