Giant companies are joining forces — NVIDIA has invested $5 billion in Intel and ordered the production of x86 processors.
The US Federal Trade Commission has approved a deal in which NVIDIA acquired a $5 billion stake in Intel. The company received 214.7 million Intel shares, becoming one of the processor manufacturer's largest strategic investors.
According to the regulator, the investment should stabilise Intel's financial position after several years of strategic miscalculations, market share decline and significant budget depletion. In recent years, the company has been losing ground amid intensifying competition from AMD and the rapid growth of ARM solutions.
In addition to the financial component, the agreement provides for in-depth technological cooperation between the companies. In particular, Intel will begin manufacturing x86 processors for NVIDIA, which is an unusual move for the market, given the direct competition between architectures.
Intel will also develop chips for data centres and artificial intelligence systems tailored to NVIDIA's needs. This is expected to help Intel utilise its production capacity more efficiently and NVIDIA reduce its dependence on third-party contract factories.
Analysts believe that the deal could be a turning point for Intel and a strategic move for NVIDIA to strengthen its position in the AI and high-performance computing market.