The technology world has made a big and historic announcement, and this news has the potential to take the entire industry in a new direction. Once arch-rivals, NVIDIA and Intel Corporation, have announced a major collaboration to develop artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and personal computing products. This partnership will not only give new energy to these two companies, but to the entire technology ecosystem. Under this agreement, NVIDIA will invest a whopping $5 billion in Intel, and together the two companies will create custom chips for data centers and PCs for several generations. This partnership is the coming together of two superpowers in the growing revolution of AI, which is undoubtedly promising to lay the foundation for the future of computing.
NVIDIA and Intel partnership format
The main objective of this historic collaboration is to seamlessly connect NVIDIA and Intel’s architectures. For this, NVIDIA NVLink, a high-speed interconnect technology, will be used. This technology enables extremely fast data transfer between NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs) and Intel’s central processing units (CPUs), which is crucial for tasks like AI and machine learning.
There are two main parts to this partnership
For the data center:
Intel will build custom x86 CPUs designed specifically for NVIDIA. NVIDIA will integrate these CPUs into its AI infrastructure platform and bring them to market. Currently, NVIDIA’s best AI servers use only its own chips. But this agreement will also give Intel a place in NVIDIA’s servers, giving them a big advantage in the growing AI market.
For personal computing (PC)
Intel will build custom x86 system-on-chips (SOCs) that integrate NVIDIA’s powerful RTX GPU chiplets. These new ‘x86 RTX SOCs’ will bring world-class CPUs and GPUs together to future PCs and laptops, providing massive acceleration for gaming, content creation, and AI applications.
NVIDIA to invest $5 billion
To further strengthen this partnership, NVIDIA has announced an investment of $5 billion in Intel common stock. NVIDIA will purchase Intel shares at a price of $23.28 per share. The investment will make NVIDIA one of Intel’s largest shareholders, owning about 4% of the company. The news sent Intel shares up by a whopping 30%, while NVIDIA shares also rose. The investment is a sign of NVIDIA’s confidence in Intel’s future and its manufacturing capabilities.
Here’s what the CEOs of both companies shared about their excitement and future plans after this historic announcement
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO, NVIDIA:
“AI is driving a new industrial revolution and rethinking every layer of computing, from silicon to software. At the heart of this is NVIDIA’s CUDA architecture. This historic partnership tightly connects NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and vast x86 ecosystem. It’s a combination of two world-class platforms. Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing.”
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel:
“Intel’s x86 architecture has been the foundation of modern computing for decades, and we are continuing to innovate across our portfolio for the future. Intel’s leading data center and client computing platforms, along with our manufacturing technologies, will complement NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing leadership. We appreciate the confidence that Jensen and the NVIDIA team have shown in us through their investment, and we look forward to bringing innovation to customers.”
How this partnership will impact the industry
This partnership is not limited to NVIDIA and Intel, but will have far-reaching implications for the entire semiconductor industry.
This partnership could pose a significant challenge to AMD, a direct competitor to Intel and NVIDIA. It could also pose a threat to Taiwan’s TSMC, which currently manufactures chips for NVIDIA, as NVIDIA could shift some of its production to Intel. This partnership could be a ‘revival’ for Intel, which has lagged behind in the mobile computing and AI race for the past few years. The trust shown by a leading AI company like NVIDIA and an investment of $5 billion will give Intel the opportunity to once again strengthen its position in the market.
This collaboration will provide customers with more powerful and efficient data center and PC products. The tight integration of CPU and GPU will greatly increase the speed required for AI, gaming and other heavy tasks.
How much is NVIDIA investing in Intel as part of the deal?
As part of the deal, NVIDIA is investing $5 billion in Intel.This investment will be made in Intel’s common stock at a purchase price of $23.28 per share.
How will this partnership impact the AI and data center industry?
The NVIDIA and Intel partnership will significantly impact the AI and data center industry by creating a new class of highly integrated and powerful computing platforms.
By combining Intel’s leading x86 CPU technology with NVIDIA’s powerful GPUs using high-speed NVLink, this collaboration will accelerate AI workloads and eliminate performance bottlenecks. Intel will manufacture custom CPUs for NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure, giving data centers unprecedented performance for complex AI training and inference tasks. This tight integration aims to “reinvent every layer of the computing stack,” reshaping the competitive landscape and driving the next era of innovation in AI.
How does this collaboration affect competitors like AMD?
The NVIDIA and Intel collaboration creates a formidable new force that directly challenges AMD’s growing influence in the tech industry.
This partnership neutralizes a key advantage for AMD, which has been unique in offering powerful CPU and GPU solutions. By combining Intel’s dominant x86 CPU architecture with NVIDIA’s unmatched AI and graphics technology, the alliance will produce highly integrated platforms for both data centers and PCs. This intensifies competition in markets where AMD was gaining ground, putting immense pressure on its EPYC server CPUs and its APU offerings in personal computing.