3 ms·

5B is a fairly tiny stake (Intel's market cap is around 120B), other than the "we're now working together" signal, why is this news?

nabla9 1y ago
In terms of voting stock, they become the biggest owner after US Commerce Department. As customer they get better access to Intel Foundry and can offload some capacity from TSMC.
- voxadam 1y ago
  > In terms of voting stock, they become the biggest owner after US Commerce Department. As I understand it the government's shares are non-voting.
  - snake42 1y ago
    The U.S. government won’t have a seat on the board and agreed to vote with Intel’s board on matters requiring shareholder approval “with limited exceptions.”
Panzer04 1y ago
tbf, If I were Nvidia and antitrust wasn't an issue I'd be tempted to buy the whole thing. Intel has a market cap just 2.5% of NVDA, so you could give away just 2.5% of your stock to buy the entirety of Intel. It's bonkers.
- amalcon 1y ago
  There are two scenarios here. In one, the AI bubble bursts (so Nvidia is overpriced now) and almost any value stock deal is good for them. In the other, it doesn't, and this gives them a limited hedge against problems with their most critical strategic partner (TSMC). It looks like a good deal either way and in any amount. But of course I am no expert.
  - Panzer04 1y ago
    I suppose the problem is Intel doesn't actually have the fab capacity anyway. They were building it, but that's all on ice now, and probably wasn't close to TSMC anyway, I'd guess. This all ignores the near complete lack of product out of their advanced processes as well.
- euLh7SM5HDFY 1y ago
  If that happened I would expect the same success story as with Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger.
  - xbar 1y ago
    Why? That is an example of a bad engineering company being acquired and then poisoning the quality of the acquirer with its toxic, low-quality, corporate-politics-above-engineering culture. There have been a lot of mergers where that has not happened.
  - ReptileMan 1y ago
    Doubtful. The gpus are usually securely mounted and there is no chance for them to ram themselves into the ground at mach speed.
iamacyborg 1y ago
Market cap was closer to 90B before this deal was announced
9cb14c1ec0 1y ago
It's a good deal for Nvidia, because custom x86 server CPUs have optimization potential for AI computing clusters, which matters now that Nvidia has competitors that they didn't just 2 years ago. I think that the next several years of Nvidia will be ones of fending off growing competition. They basically baked in a massive investment profit into the deal. When you factor in the stock jump since this announcement, Nvidia has already made billions.
- ForHackernews 1y ago
  Who are NVidia's competitors? I thought they were the only game in town when it came to CUDA/AI chips.
  - re-thc 1y ago
    AMD, Broadcom, Huawei, etc
Ekaros 1y ago
Isn't 5% somewhat significant chunk? I really wouldn't call it tiny one. Maybe not even small anymore.
glimshe 1y ago
This is a technology forum first and foremost. I know it might not look that way given the recent flood of political activism articles. But, in the technology field, this is pretty big news. This stake makes Nvidia one of Intel's biggest shareholders.
- esseph 1y ago
  There is a good chance this was required by politicians, and is therefore political activism. :-)
  - high_na_euv 1y ago
    https://www.techpowerup.com/341137/nvidias-usd-5b-intel-investment-reveals-x86-gpu-nvlink-project https://www.techpowerup.com/341137/nvidias-usd-5b-intel-inve...

nabla9 1y ago

In terms of voting stock, they become the biggest owner after US Commerce Department. As customer they get better access to Intel Foundry and can offload some capacity from TSMC.

voxadam 1y ago
> In terms of voting stock, they become the biggest owner after US Commerce Department. As I understand it the government's shares are non-voting.
- snake42 1y ago
  The U.S. government won’t have a seat on the board and agreed to vote with Intel’s board on matters requiring shareholder approval “with limited exceptions.”

Panzer04 1y ago

tbf, If I were Nvidia and antitrust wasn't an issue I'd be tempted to buy the whole thing. Intel has a market cap just 2.5% of NVDA, so you could give away just 2.5% of your stock to buy the entirety of Intel. It's bonkers.

amalcon 1y ago
There are two scenarios here. In one, the AI bubble bursts (so Nvidia is overpriced now) and almost any value stock deal is good for them. In the other, it doesn't, and this gives them a limited hedge against problems with their most critical strategic partner (TSMC). It looks like a good deal either way and in any amount. But of course I am no expert.
- Panzer04 1y ago
  I suppose the problem is Intel doesn't actually have the fab capacity anyway. They were building it, but that's all on ice now, and probably wasn't close to TSMC anyway, I'd guess. This all ignores the near complete lack of product out of their advanced processes as well.
euLh7SM5HDFY 1y ago
If that happened I would expect the same success story as with Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger.
- xbar 1y ago
  Why? That is an example of a bad engineering company being acquired and then poisoning the quality of the acquirer with its toxic, low-quality, corporate-politics-above-engineering culture. There have been a lot of mergers where that has not happened.
- ReptileMan 1y ago
  Doubtful. The gpus are usually securely mounted and there is no chance for them to ram themselves into the ground at mach speed.

iamacyborg 1y ago

Market cap was closer to 90B before this deal was announced

9cb14c1ec0 1y ago

It's a good deal for Nvidia, because custom x86 server CPUs have optimization potential for AI computing clusters, which matters now that Nvidia has competitors that they didn't just 2 years ago. I think that the next several years of Nvidia will be ones of fending off growing competition. They basically baked in a massive investment profit into the deal. When you factor in the stock jump since this announcement, Nvidia has already made billions.

ForHackernews 1y ago
Who are NVidia's competitors? I thought they were the only game in town when it came to CUDA/AI chips.
- re-thc 1y ago
  AMD, Broadcom, Huawei, etc

Ekaros 1y ago

Isn't 5% somewhat significant chunk? I really wouldn't call it tiny one. Maybe not even small anymore.

glimshe 1y ago

This is a technology forum first and foremost. I know it might not look that way given the recent flood of political activism articles. But, in the technology field, this is pretty big news. This stake makes Nvidia one of Intel's biggest shareholders.

esseph 1y ago
There is a good chance this was required by politicians, and is therefore political activism. :-)
- high_na_euv 1y ago
  https://www.techpowerup.com/341137/nvidias-usd-5b-intel-investment-reveals-x86-gpu-nvlink-project https://www.techpowerup.com/341137/nvidias-usd-5b-intel-inve...